May 2022

Tranquil Tides The water crashes against the dock Like a chime, melody. The boats bob on the water, but seem at peace. I sit down near the edge, not too close, nor too far. The sun dips down into the Earth, leaving a spill of purple and dusty rose to light the dusk sky. Soon the moon will take over the job of the sun, guiding the midnight travelers. The waves crash against the dock, almost like children playing. The birds keep chirping, as they normally do, but they are not annoying; they seem like a melody this evening, for they too seem tired. Like me. Where am I? Why is it turning dark too fast? What is behind me? What do I feel like? At peace. The day is gone now, and soon I will rest. I feel tired and calm, and the waves seem to start to feel that too, as they are more calm now, like children before bed. Content, tired, peaceful By the water. By the water. By the water. Benjamin Romano, 10Lynnfield, MA Sabrina Lu, 13Ashburn, VA

Every day upon waking up, I wish that the burden of school had never been thrust upon my tired back as I cannot keep up with addition, subtraction, fractions, and historic factions while strangers observe my every action five days a week, eight hours a day, our only vacation being one based around letting kids out to start working on their parents’ farms during the harvest season. And that tradition only stays so that we kids can have a mental break from school although soon we will go back and have our schedule wiped clear, making me want to break out and go have fun before I’m buried underground with a sign above saying rest in peace. And we are not even free three days a week, a freedom I think we deserve as many seem to forget that one day we will grow up and work maybe twice as hard as you and of course, let’s not forget that when you grow old, who else but your sons and daughters will in turn take care of you and yet one thing we won’t do is take your freedom like you take ours. And still we will fight for you even though you dump us in school as the people who are often referred to as “America’s future” find themselves in a government-required American monarchy, where the teachers act like dukes, the deans like princes, and the principal the all-powerful king, while we the future are insignificant peasants stuck in the king’s castle while being told we have to follow all his rules, while we toil in a classroom, making our humor and passion slowly dissipate as we learn about but do not obey the rules of freedom of speech and democracy while being instructed on everything from how to breathe and when we can go pee and not to put our heads on the table and being scolded for doing it twice by a hypocritical math teacher, and when I go to the graded class of musical theater he tells us that we cannot even go to the bathroom unless we are about to wet our pants, and that just so he doesn’t get scolded by our parents for putting their children in an embarrassing position in front of the class—making me feel that this American monarchy has gone too far and is going to keep on destroying our future, even though they already have by filling the sky with toxic gasses—all so they could get a fancy pen and with a few strokes decide whether we will go to college and be successful or end up in a small apartment while working at McDonald’s, all because the American monarchy said we weren’t smart enough to go to even the worst college, which is why at the end of the day, we can say that the American monarchy is a messed up system run by annoying narcissists, and if we want a future, school should be remade, from a monarchy to a children’s democracy. Connor Kiggins, 12New York, NY