strong imagery
— In a post-COVID dystopia where rich and poor are segregated, a lonely delivery boy discovers an underground society of 'Peacebreakers' who refuse to wear masks or social distance.
— During California's 2020 wildfires, a girl wakes to an apocalyptic orange sky and wonders when the world will return to normal.
— A sonnet celebrating nature's cycles through sensory images of water, wildlife, and seasonal changes, from sunset to sunrise, rain to bloom.
— A girl and her pet mouse climb the dangerous Mt. Treacherous, facing rockslides and bears before triumphantly reaching the summit and returning home as heroes.
— A hiker rises above civilization to Lake Alpine, becoming one with the hawk soaring overhead, breathing pine and sage and thin mountain air.
— Through a fogged window, a child observes city life: a girl with her dog, a street musician, an old couple, and a flower growing through concrete cracks.
— A refugee teen's defiant catalog of what takes courage — building schools, welcoming the homeless, staying human — versus what's easy: destroying, hurting, closing your eyes.
— A child observes a yellow woodpecker pecking at a tree, wonders about its purpose, then watches it glide away like a paper airplane.
— A dialogue poem between two voices moves from invitation to fly, through a refugee's plea for help, to a declaration of collective strength and resistance.
— A young chess player narrates a winning game, capturing pieces with confidence until achieving checkmate in a moment of triumph.