original perspective

Poetry·Avery DiBella, age 10 — A child's meditation on the moon as companion, comparing it to stars, dreams, a howling dog, and a soft pillow in a series of short, fragmented verses.

Story·Harper Fortgang, age 13 — A Purple courier delivering documents in the Forbidden Strip—where Purple and Green people live together—meets Unum, whose greyish-brown skin and perspective challenge everything she's been taught about segregation.

Poetry·Sean Tenzin O'Connor, age 5 — A child observes the grain patterns in a piece of wood under lamplight, seeing landscapes of mountains, rivers, trees, and worms in its natural markings.

Poetry·Sage Millen, age 12 — A sunset transforms into dragon fire and shattering colors, with the speaker urging readers to catch the pieces before everything ends in stars.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young poet connects the mathematical concept of parallel lines to the endless nature of Christmas traditions and Santa's eternal journey.

Story·Avital Sagan, age 12 — A sentient radio watches helplessly as carnivorous moonflowers take over the island city of Floracion, turning its inhabitants into mindless carriers of the infection.

Poetry·Raeha Khazanchi, age 11 — Northern lights transform a winter landscape, turning snow green and hair violet-blue in a private celestial performance witnessed by the speaker.

Poetry·Avery Lakomy, age 12 — A young poet questions why we divide the world into regions when their eyes see only one unified place where all people belong together.

Poetry·Emma Catherine Hoff, age 8 — A child shares an apricot with a bird that grows arms, carries her away, then transforms into a beaked human named Carry in a world where apricots hang above.

Poetry·Jake Sun, age 9 — A philosophical meditation on the concept of nothing — its paradoxical presence in absence, its role in thought and space, and its unexpected value in our lives.