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The Birth of Spring by Kirsten Weirich
The darkness has dissipated, and the cold has quelled, leaving us to stand in the hour of rebirth, a time to shed the skin of sadness, to sever the curse of silence, immobility, and seasonal gloom. Soon, the sun will shine and vibrant colors will reign over muted grays and icy blues; no more will fields and trees be bare, left hollow and void, a sorry shell of nature. In this hour, Life shall begin again. Spring is born. |
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Respite in Paradise by Antonio Govea
A fresh breath drawn, without the cold
The dying frost as it nips the throat, now is clear
The lingering threat of sickness in every breath
Now gone, as I can breathe with fresh perspective
Though the cold gives me comfort
Pardon is such sorrow
The cycle must continue
Our world’s respite in Paradise
Life flourishes, babies run to the sunset
Insects, our mother’s puppets
Bring life to our fauna
Though their intentions without remorse
For their kingdom is a cruel one
Lifeless and articulated
Calculation without sympathy
Hundreds die, thousands are born
The cycle must continue
Our flora exist, our life giver
Colder than the insects, more beautiful
Our human nature, values beauty above all else
And yet we fail to see more in such lifeless things.
All is trampled with our influence, things tossed aside
But life still breathes, the beauty still works endlessly
Existence is true royalty, thought we fail to appreciate its value
Until all is lost.
The cycle must continue, as all fades to that chilling void.
call to the Northern lights
Lotus, to us the wisdom of right
Bound by formalities, natures intention
Plays with heed, the voices in gale
Cull the weak, bring sickness to the world and sea.
The cycle continues.
A respite in paradise, a paradox to all who do not listen
To the voices and faces surrounded in shadow.
A fresh breath drawn, without the cold
The dying frost as it nips the throat, now is clear
The lingering threat of sickness in every breath
Now gone, as I can breathe with fresh perspective
Though the cold gives me comfort
Pardon is such sorrow
The cycle must continue
Our world’s respite in Paradise
Life flourishes, babies run to the sunset
Insects, our mother’s puppets
Bring life to our fauna
Though their intentions without remorse
For their kingdom is a cruel one
Lifeless and articulated
Calculation without sympathy
Hundreds die, thousands are born
The cycle must continue
Our flora exist, our life giver
Colder than the insects, more beautiful
Our human nature, values beauty above all else
And yet we fail to see more in such lifeless things.
All is trampled with our influence, things tossed aside
But life still breathes, the beauty still works endlessly
Existence is true royalty, thought we fail to appreciate its value
Until all is lost.
The cycle must continue, as all fades to that chilling void.
call to the Northern lights
Lotus, to us the wisdom of right
Bound by formalities, natures intention
Plays with heed, the voices in gale
Cull the weak, bring sickness to the world and sea.
The cycle continues.
A respite in paradise, a paradox to all who do not listen
To the voices and faces surrounded in shadow.
The Sapphic’s Rejoice by Megan Britcher
My heart is pounding
This unspoken feeling pulls me closer
Like she is magnetized
I no longer have control
Aphrodite has power over my lips
She is still staring into my eyes
Waiting for me to fill that empty space between us
Those empty years of thinking I had one option
Of whom to love, who to kiss
But how can something
Deemed so sinful and shameful
Make my heart feel so full
Feel so right
So different from that life
Where I lived by my parent's rules
Where love had a wrong answer
This fullness I feel in my heart
It overflows
I open my eyes
She is grinning at me
And all of Sappho’s work
And Patroclus’ songs
Could not have prepared me
For how beautiful this true love really is
My heart is pounding
This unspoken feeling pulls me closer
Like she is magnetized
I no longer have control
Aphrodite has power over my lips
She is still staring into my eyes
Waiting for me to fill that empty space between us
Those empty years of thinking I had one option
Of whom to love, who to kiss
But how can something
Deemed so sinful and shameful
Make my heart feel so full
Feel so right
So different from that life
Where I lived by my parent's rules
Where love had a wrong answer
This fullness I feel in my heart
It overflows
I open my eyes
She is grinning at me
And all of Sappho’s work
And Patroclus’ songs
Could not have prepared me
For how beautiful this true love really is
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Beautiful Weeds by Baker Sebastian
A garden ridden with weeds. In an antique chest adorned with yellow velvet and blue gems. You were a patch of roses. But over time they built up. But you have so many new colors. I love your dandelions that sprout yellow and turn soft. I love your chicory that are full of blue energy. Your daisies bring me comfort with their soft yellow skirted in white. Oh, I love the color of the fleabane that dusts pink on my cheeks. Your Goldenrod whispers to me advice in a golden breeze. The wild violets catch my eye with their stunning purple. All these beautiful things? You call them just weeds though you’re wrong. They may be weeds but they are beautiful. You are beautiful. |
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Probably Awfully Improbable by Elisabeth Forrester
It’s speculated that the universe is infinite. Infinity is, of course, hard to measure, so it’s also speculated that it might be difficult to know for sure. However, for today, we’ll say that the universe is, in fact, rather infinite. Due to this newfound infinite nature, it only makes sense that almost anything might be possible, as probability simply states that, when given infinite opportunities, even the most improbable outcomes become certain. Therefore, although it may sound rather odd, in an infinite universe, it makes a rather large amount of sense for at least one planet out there to contain beings that look an awful lot like what our folktales portray as fairies, because why not?
Now, why don’t we keep the name for these creatures as “fairies,” for the sake of simplicity, and give this planet a nice mouthful of a name, for lack of simplicity, such as Laurariousterrafée. Let’s suppose that these fairies have been studying the universe around them in an excitingly advanced manner, all while using thimble-sized computing systems and two-liter soda bottle spacecraft. Although their methods of interstellar transport may seem small, and therefore inefficient at traveling the large distances of the universe, this is absolutely false; the fairies, being the intelligent species that they are, have come up with wonderful ways to compute large amounts of data with such small machinery and to travel in such small craft. Well, small by our standards, that is.
But the current fairy world has their entire species wrapped up in a single cause: getting enough signatures on their petition that the Board will take notice to their plight. You see, for centuries, the fairies have had their view of the open sky disrupted by a billboard planet. (Their issue is quite understandable, considering that no one knows when billboard planets were invented and who masterminded the operation, only that they’ve been annoying residents of this universe for an excruciating amount of time.) However, the only way they might have any hope of removing this annoyance would be to file an official complaint, along with a complete and signed petition, to the Board and hope for the best. And so, for centuries, fairies have been spending dedicated careers traveling the universe and collecting signatures from every planet they visit. Some may argue that a species of such intelligence should not be reduced to such a methodical task, but the fairies find it a job of passion, and take pride in defending their planet. Even so, there are still some fairies on Laurariousterrafée today who’d rather become a part of the nine out of ten dentists currently recommending any given toothpaste brand (or—heaven forbid—becoming the one in ten who doesn’t!) instead of at least contributing something to the effort. But we’ll focus on the petition for now.
The group of petitioning fairies visiting Earth had just returned from their journey. Although the planet itself was rather small and insignificant, it was causing quite a buzz over at pizza box-sized headquarters. Returning fairies discussed how they weren’t able to obtain the signature, something something about the climate of the planet, something something about the simplicity of the language, and then something of interest. Apparently, on Earth, fairies were seen as nothing but ideas from a children’s fairytale. Insulting, but one must take patience with beings from another planet. When the team asked a human inhabitant to mark the name that would represent their world, they seemed to have put the human into some kind of distress. Pity. Only when professionally inquired as to why it had experienced such a reaction was the human able to reply. Fairies reported that the response fell something along the lines of, “well, considering that fairies don’t exist, the fact that I’m seeing fairies now leaves me with only two options moving forward. Either every truth I know about my world is jeopardized, as this one was proved false, or I am hallucinating this appearance, which leads me to reconsider all information my senses bring in. Either way, I will never again know what is true and what is false.” And with that, the human inhabitant broke into a sob.
Shame. From an efficiency standpoint, quite the unfortunate setback.
It’s speculated that the universe is infinite. Infinity is, of course, hard to measure, so it’s also speculated that it might be difficult to know for sure. However, for today, we’ll say that the universe is, in fact, rather infinite. Due to this newfound infinite nature, it only makes sense that almost anything might be possible, as probability simply states that, when given infinite opportunities, even the most improbable outcomes become certain. Therefore, although it may sound rather odd, in an infinite universe, it makes a rather large amount of sense for at least one planet out there to contain beings that look an awful lot like what our folktales portray as fairies, because why not?
Now, why don’t we keep the name for these creatures as “fairies,” for the sake of simplicity, and give this planet a nice mouthful of a name, for lack of simplicity, such as Laurariousterrafée. Let’s suppose that these fairies have been studying the universe around them in an excitingly advanced manner, all while using thimble-sized computing systems and two-liter soda bottle spacecraft. Although their methods of interstellar transport may seem small, and therefore inefficient at traveling the large distances of the universe, this is absolutely false; the fairies, being the intelligent species that they are, have come up with wonderful ways to compute large amounts of data with such small machinery and to travel in such small craft. Well, small by our standards, that is.
But the current fairy world has their entire species wrapped up in a single cause: getting enough signatures on their petition that the Board will take notice to their plight. You see, for centuries, the fairies have had their view of the open sky disrupted by a billboard planet. (Their issue is quite understandable, considering that no one knows when billboard planets were invented and who masterminded the operation, only that they’ve been annoying residents of this universe for an excruciating amount of time.) However, the only way they might have any hope of removing this annoyance would be to file an official complaint, along with a complete and signed petition, to the Board and hope for the best. And so, for centuries, fairies have been spending dedicated careers traveling the universe and collecting signatures from every planet they visit. Some may argue that a species of such intelligence should not be reduced to such a methodical task, but the fairies find it a job of passion, and take pride in defending their planet. Even so, there are still some fairies on Laurariousterrafée today who’d rather become a part of the nine out of ten dentists currently recommending any given toothpaste brand (or—heaven forbid—becoming the one in ten who doesn’t!) instead of at least contributing something to the effort. But we’ll focus on the petition for now.
The group of petitioning fairies visiting Earth had just returned from their journey. Although the planet itself was rather small and insignificant, it was causing quite a buzz over at pizza box-sized headquarters. Returning fairies discussed how they weren’t able to obtain the signature, something something about the climate of the planet, something something about the simplicity of the language, and then something of interest. Apparently, on Earth, fairies were seen as nothing but ideas from a children’s fairytale. Insulting, but one must take patience with beings from another planet. When the team asked a human inhabitant to mark the name that would represent their world, they seemed to have put the human into some kind of distress. Pity. Only when professionally inquired as to why it had experienced such a reaction was the human able to reply. Fairies reported that the response fell something along the lines of, “well, considering that fairies don’t exist, the fact that I’m seeing fairies now leaves me with only two options moving forward. Either every truth I know about my world is jeopardized, as this one was proved false, or I am hallucinating this appearance, which leads me to reconsider all information my senses bring in. Either way, I will never again know what is true and what is false.” And with that, the human inhabitant broke into a sob.
Shame. From an efficiency standpoint, quite the unfortunate setback.
