Volume Two, Issue One

Unhealthy relationships. Maybe you've been in one yourself. Maybe your friend is in one right now. She has a new boyfriend and they have been together for about a month or two. However, you never felt right about this relationship, you always thought he would do something to hurt her. Whenever you bring this up with her, she blows you off, says that you're crazy, he would never do something like that. But then one day, you find that he cheated on your best friend. When you tell her she is absolutely crushed. She confronts him. At first he denies it, and then finally admits that he did cheat. She doesn't know what to do because she honestly thought they loved each other. After a few days he comes back and apologizes for everything he ever did. He wants her back and says everything that she wants to hear. He tells her that he’ll never do it again, that he loves her and that what he did meant nothing to him. She eventually takes him back because she believes it won't happen again, that everything he said was true. It could be, maybe sometimes it can work out like that. But we all know, that's not how it usually works out. He cheats again and she becomes heartbroken again. It becomes a cycle that never ends.

Why do people constantly stay in relationships like this though? Do they truly believe that it will change even after it has happened multiple times? It won’t. And even if it did change would you ever be able to trust this person again. The relationship would turn into constant anxiety worrying about what your partner might be doing when you're not around. Being in this kind of relationship that is constantly “on and off” can cause a roller coaster of emotions for either side of the relationship. The whole point of a relationship is to have trust and commitment. If your relationship lacks either of these things there is barely a relationship.

natural disaster

By: anonymous

they like to name hurricanes after people

and they’ve always gone every other gender

boy then girl then boy then girl then boy then girl

then start it over again.

and that is also how people cause pain.

it began with a boy in the image of a father

fathers come in many images

and mine came in none at all

for years upon years.

and then it went on with a girl in the body of a mother

or a hand coming down to tell me i’m not enough

and both look the same.

then it was a boy

or many with rotting mouths

a slut or a whore or ugly or all of the above

i took those names on

but not gracefully.

then it was a girl

betrayal

rumors can spread like frosting but aren’t quite as sweet.

then another boy

this one pretended it was not a hurricane

but instead the sunshine afterwards

and the May showers were filled with growth

until he bought a weedwhacker

and did his worst

and transferred from the eye of the storm

to the storm itself.

the last girl of the year was me

because strangely enough

that space between my ribs does not hold something beating

but instead something raging

killing and mauling and destroying

a lot like the rest of them

and it writes of the rest of them as though it has something to prove

or as if it is better

but when the storm passes and the empty hole swallows it back up

i will realize

that i left just as much damage

as they did

and in fact

i was the worst hurricane

that i had ever seen.

Glass

By Savannah Rosenfield

I see the rocks in the river,

the river that runs

in a torrent like your moods.

In the river are sharp little pebbles,

that remind me of the

glass in your heart.

When you yell at me

I imagine the glass in

your heart left there by people

in the past who have wronged you

or hurt you in some way.

Those people left their mark

on you

I am afraid that if I

keep pushing people away,

people I care about,

I will end up just like you,

letting them leave their

own piece of glass in me.

Then I will end up with

a thousand pieces of glass in my heart,

like the ones in yours.

Hate

By Savannah Rosenfield

It blooms like a

flower in spring.

It can boil over like

a pot of water on

a stove top

I get my hate from my father.

Most fathers teach

their children how

to fish or fight,

Mine taught me how

to hate someone,

how to yell and

scream at them.

Maybe one day I

will learn how to Love

instead of Hate.

Soft Universe

By Toni Hooker

It is the gift of the Universe

To create life.

To create life

Does not destroy one’s body;

It only makes Her softer,

Turns Her impenetrable void into heaven.

She swells with clouds,

And they swirl inside Her.

The darkness in Her womb

Turns to blue and orange

Before the clouds collapse into themselves,

An eruption of light

Turned into life

And in the retiring of light

Comes the embrace of a mother.

After this light

Comes a potential journey,

The road of development and growth,

But for this

She makes a new body and soul,

The birth of a whole new system,

A stellar progeny.

And this progeny,

This body and soul,

Shall hold a million lives of its own.

She too will create,

Just like her mother.

She thinks of the life growing inside her:

How it will be to meet her child for the first time

After what seems to be 10 million years.

The fear and excitement of bringing even more life into this universe

Becomes more pronounced as she feels

Closer to this new life than anything she’d ever come to know.

She looks at what she’s made.

A new respect for her mother rises.

Wrapped in her aphotic embrace,

She sees that her body is now more like her mother’s,

That she’s also been given the gift of life,

And she knows now,

That her child is a gift.

To hold a child is a gift,

And to birth a child is an honor.

Suddenly,

The collapse of a cloud

Doesn’t seem so destructive,

And the void

Isn’t as desolate anymore.

Out of nothing, comes everything,

And it is

A gift of the Universe.