Poetry Contest Winners 

*Keep scrolling to read all the winning poems*

First Place:

Pomegranate By Samantha Ruiz    

is the destruction worth it?

is the abundant pulp so sweet,     

the fruit so tantalizing?

that you let the sticky juice 

drip

drip 

drip 

from your palms,

pooling at your feet.

leaving the stains that cannot be scrubbed beneath fingernails.

seeds so small, hundreds buried inside,

you scrape them from their burrow,

only for a desolate carcass to be found.

the once supple fruit is gutted,

raw carnage inside your bowl,

the blood on your hands tells a tale,

of a tender fruit once so sweet.

Second Place:

you burn so bright, my dear by anonymous

in every room, someone with a friendly face has saved you a seat

you’ll smile back, settle comfortably, and find a spark of connection

room by room, face by face, until you finally enter your own 

where you’re

                       alone

but not really

                            there’s still another voice, the one in your head

the one who keeps you up at night, playing a montage of mistakes

the one who nitpicks, especially when it's unnecessary

the one who taints your own reflection in the mirror

the one who will watch you struggling to stay warm in the blizzard of your doubts

your fears, your shortcomings, your disappointments, your hardships

and then suffocate the final flame, leaving you out in the cold

but without it, that other voice, the one inside your head, you could be

the one who’s okay with mistakes, okay with things not being perfect, okay with finding a new definition of “beautiful”

so keep finding those sparks, but remember to breathe, because a fire burns brightest with a little more oxygen.

Third Place:

Silent War of the Heart by Sydney Kaufman

A silent war is waged within my heart,

Where loyalty and longing disagree.

I watch you smile, and I am torn apart,

For you belong to her, not to me.

She says your name with dreams in her eyes,

I listen close and play the loyal friend,

While hiding all my feelings in disguise,

A tragedy I know I cannot mend.

Your hand in hers is what I have to see,

And I must seem happy, for friendship’s sake,

But oh, to have you standing close to me,

Is a silent wish that keeps my heart awake.

So I will lock my feelings safe from view,

Because I love her, even though I love you too

Honorable Mention:

Crack An Egg by Ave Knox

What’s so unique about Eggs is how they all look different,

white, tan, dark brown, and some even blue.

Large, small, stretched, and a few so tiny

blink and they almost disappear.

But crack any egg open and you’ll see that

their insides are the same. No matter what size or color

they spill the same truth.

So think about people the same way,

different shade, different size, different background.

The world makes differences seem like rotten,

but crack the surface of anyone’s life, and

you’ll realize we are all human.