Poem: Whispers
Poem: Wind Break
Story: Invisible Friends
Slam Poem: Yukon's Cherry Coke Phobia Experiment
Slam Poem: 13 Steps to Successfully Kidnap Someone
Group Poem: Melting Into Beauty
Screenplay: The Junebugs' Night Out
WHISPERS
I can hear you.
The whispers in my body.
My head speaks with vigor, her whispers boom loudly within my skull. She calls me crazy.
My heart, she whispers to me her deepest desires only to be ignored.
My lungs don't whisper, they wheeze, with the pressures we place on them to push harder.
WIND BREAK
When you cradle behind me there is a difference in how the wind breaks around my body.
Alone, I can feel the cold winds caress my face, my arms, and the insides of my lungs as I breathe.
Alone, the ever-long essence of my perfume dances in the room.
But my love, with you it changes.
With you, there is a gentle warm touch that graces my skin. Bold and knowing, you block the cold winds from bearing my body.
With you, breathing deeper and smell the grit built up after your long hard days. You hold me as close as you need. We may agree you held me close because you needed me more than you knew
The days that make my love bittersweet
Sweet like honey, hot like a summer rain. My love, with you, it changes
You turn my cold sleepless nights as words rush my head into a protective process where those words are better left unsaid
Here in your arms, the cold winds may still be there but they do not make me shiver.
INVISIBLE FRIENDS
SALLY POV
Sally Crawford.
Age 8.
Rheumatic heart disease
Symptoms started showing last year, still in treatment.
Time of death 11:59 pm
I was a little girl with a permanent heart disease. I passed away during the late night of the 16th of September, surrounded by my parents, and my family.
When I woke up I was in a bedroom. A girl came over and grabbed my hand. She shook it roughly and quietly said “Hithere, I’m Tiffany.” Her hand was warm. I looked down confused at my outfit. My patient gown was gone. I was wearing a tiara with feathers coming out of my hair. My dress was a bright neon yellow and my hair was a light shade of purple. Tiffany looked a year younger than me. She was wearing the same dress I was. She clearly dressed herself this morning. My mother and I didn't get to play dress-up anymore. I was stuck in that sage green gown. Looking around the room it seemed that we liked the same things. She asked my name. I told her it was Sally but she did not seem impressed. She said I looked more like Bubbles to her.
The sicker I got the more I knew. I can take care of Tiffany. Will I grow older, wiser and more hopeful? You see when you get as sick as I did you lose hope. Hearing what the doctors told my parents in not so whispering whispers was eye opening to what I was going through. The heart treatments were gruesome. I was a superstar to the cardiac surgeons from around the world. Yet they came to see me like a zoo animal. My parents played it off like I was a famous superstar, but I knew the truth. I was a dying little girl with no chance of surviving.
I told my mom I missed being 6. I was in first grade. My mother cried near my bedside at night. I pretended to sleep so she wouldn't get embarrassed. She deserved to grief right? The only bad part is that my mom was grieving before I left her. I was diagnosed when I was 7 and a half. The Monday after my passing my 2nd grade class spent the day learning about the number 27. My teacher Mrs. Creek was sad that day. She and the nurse sat in the sick room and cried together after getting the call from my mother that I would not be coming to school again. It was hard for me to watch the school nurse after my passing. I didn't know her name so I called her Cricket. When I was in school and would have heart pains they would send me to her and try to fix me with Tums. Cricket would make me laugh all the time. Sometimes when she would give me checkups she would chirp like a cricket. One day my mom came to pick me up for a big doctor's appointment and I said bye to cricket and she waved and said “ See ,chirp, you later ,chirp, chirp”. I laughed the entire way to the doctors. I think Cricket and Mrs Creek are going to miss me.
Tiffany stood me up and asked if I wanted to play. When I was alive I wasn't allowed to play rough because of my heart. I tried to explain this to her. The sharp pains that raked the inside of my skin. She looked at me confused and we decided a tea party would be safer. She made a placemat just for me.Tiffany was smart, she must have played this game millions of times. She had 5 chairs in her room filled with stuffies. I loved her panda stuffie named Mr. Potatoes. He sat next to me, along with Uri, her giant stuffed rabbit. Then next to Uri was Amanda the Frog and then Tif. She was straight across from me. With a smile on her face she poured tea and talked in some sort of accent. We laughed and giggled about nonsense. I heard the door crack open, a whisper or two, and the door closed. Normally I would be in pain right now, a sharp pain would shoot through my veins into my heart as I laughed. I would have noticed it but it wasn't there. My face must have shown that I was confused. Tif looked at me and in her funny accent said “ OH DEAR! Mrs. Bubbles, what is that matter to you?” I giggled slightly and said nothing was wrong. I wanted to play a new game. She nodded and grabbed my arm. We raced outside together.
When we got outside I noticed that I wasn't wearing shoes. The grass was sharp yet soft. I haven't felt the grass between my toes in months. I was always stuck in bed forgetting about my old life. We went into the jungle gym she had. This thing towered over us! I could feel my heart beating faster and faster the longer we stood in front of the playset. I could not remember the last time I played this hard. I felt free and enjoyed the joy pulsing through my veins and into my heart. We played so many games that I don't even know how our imaginations held us together. Together we were unstoppable! No matter how old Tif and I get, I hope she knows that the little girl in me would always be safe because of her.