Leaf, please fall on my shoulder
Give me something to get over
as the sky turns to grey
and pollution exhaust the day away
look to trees and wonder
and fall into my secret slumber
In dreams of poppies and morning dew
and of memories shared with you
With you I share the comfort of grass
and link ourselves in chains of daisies
Good times too shall pass
nature continues to amaze me
-Lizzie Casey
The environment
What more is there to say about
Hippy prancing fun
My contribution
A day time trip to the zoo
Release the lions!
Back to the roots; Green
Getting scalped by the natives
What good times those were
Black disgusting sludge
Steams and burns and engulfs all
Blame Los Angeles
One way to help things
All out atomic fighting
Hinder to start help
Destruction
By Madison Mackenzie
Beautiful trees
Standing strong and powerful
Blankets of thick flowers
Hold their mountains in a strong embrace
Clear air
Slipping into waiting lungs
Saws revving
Sacred beauties hit the ground
Petals wither
Closing into themselves, yearning for sanctuary
Deep breath of cotton
Lungs rejecting the poisonous necessity
She was awoken a little before eight that morning to the telephone ringing and a message from her dad recording on the answering machine. “Rise and shine! Glory, Glory! Time to get up! Happy Easter! …Hi Ali, give us a call. I’m gonna call your cell phone too. But, wake up, feed the dog, let him out, all that good stuff. Talk to you in a bit.” Ali, half awake by now, felt her phone vibrating on her face. She answered with a hoarse, “Hi dad”. “Morning Ali!”
“Morning.” She wiped her eyes and felt mascara smear across her face and realized she was still in the clothes she wore yesterday. Her dad told her about Danny’s game yesterday and how well he did. There was no question this was the reason for his extremely joyful mood: he was with his son, watching him play the American game in college, succeeding in life and in the baseball. How could a father be prouder?
“So, Danny had a great game yesterday!”
“Yea, why?”
“He hit a homer!”
“That’s great! Was there anybody on base?”
“Yea two guys, he just did a great job!”
“Yeah! Good job Danny!”
“You should call him!”
“Alright.”
“So anyway, the plan is we are going to take grandma to church; Danny, Mom, and I are gonna to go to breakfast, and then we’ll say goodbye to Dan, go get grandma at church and take her home while she’s still full of glory, and then we’ll head on home, so we won’t be home till pretty late.”
“Ok”
“Alright?”
“Yeap.”
“Alright we’ll see you when we get home Ali! Hey, take care of your dog will ya?”
“Yea, I will”
“Alright, bye.”
“Bye”
Ali got up. She changed out of her clothes and into the PJ’s she never wore last night. After a few minutes of walking around the house aimlessly, waking herself up, she opened the squeaky garage door and let her furry black dog outside, filled his bowl with kibble and mixed in his pills so he would eat them. Bare footed, she went back inside and watched Sunday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal in her hands. Waking up slow like this always reminded her of summer mornings and good times with her older brother, Danny. After chores, homework, and a shower, she decided to take her dog on a walk in the trails and pick wild flowers along the way to surprise her parents when they got home.
She changed into black spandex shorts and a little gray t-shirt, her volleyball clothes. Before walking out the door she looked into the mirror and smiled; slid the hair tie off her wrist and gathered her long hair into a shimmering blond ponytail. She was the kind of girl that was naturally beautiful. Her eyes were a very light blue, her cheeks were rosy, and her lips were always red, usually from licking them to much. Her beauty was pure and innocent, the kind any man wanted.
It had rained a lot in the weeks before and the hills were as green as Dublin. The sky was a clear blue, not a cloud to be found. The sun was bright and she felt a lovely warmth as she walked along, yet never got too hot. She heard all the birds chirping and every flower had a sweet perfume. It was a beautiful day, almost too beautiful.
As she strolled along she sang quietly to herself or whistled a happy song, her favorite uncle taught her how to whistle. She thought on her friends, her family, and the men in her life, the recent events that had caused her heart-break. And every ten minutes or so, she’d see a lady with a dog, bike riders, runners, or family’s taking a stroll.
While gathering clusters of little white flowers from a tree, she felt a man walking behind her. His eyes were a brown, tinted red, like terra cotta. His eyebrows were faint and his strawberry blond hair was balding. He wore work shoes, and work pants that look like they were a size too small. His pot belly protruded out of a white tee shirt and the blue lettering on it read, Property of Jesus. A silver chain hung down around his thick neck holding a cross. He looked out of place there, like someone picked him up off of the sidewalk and placed him on the trail.
“Hi” he greeted her.
“Hi” The path forked, she chose to go to the left and he did as well.
“Are you walking somewhere or just going for a walk?” Ali inquired
“Oh, just goin for a walk.” He spoke through his throat, making him sound froggie. He stopped and put his hand out for the black furry dog to sniff, but he had no interest in this stranger and ran off to go pounce something in the green hills.
The man was walking at the same pace as her. Noticing his religious wear she said. “Happy Easter”
“Happy Easter”, Holding out his hand, he said, “My name is Donald”
“I’m Ali.” His shake was soft. She continued walking, but he slowed down and let her walk in front of him. She felt his eyes running up and down her body. Knowing there was a church near by she asked, “Did you go to church this morning?”
“Yes I did. Jesus is my lord and savior and I let him lead my life. Does Jesus lead your life?” His terra cotta eyes became intense, and in the light, looked redder than ever.
“I’m not religious.”
This guy sounds like he’s from a frick’n cult. But her grandmother would have never approved of this thought. Ali couldn’t count how many times her grandmother had dragged her to church in hopes to make her see the light of God. It never felt right to her and she always disagreed with what the priest sermoned about. Her grandmother always told her she needed a good relationship with God and believed that inside everyone there is a hole that needs to be filled by God’s love. Ali believed God to be made up in order to help people answer their questions about the world, until science came along.
“I work at the hardware store” he said abruptly.
“Oh ya, which one?”
“Pini”
“Oh, my dad goes in there a lot.”
“What’s his name?”
“Micheal Carver”
“Oh, that name sounds familiar.”
The path forked again. She chose the left, towards where the honeysuckle grew. This time he chose the right, leading off the trail. She was glad. He was perfectly nice, but there was something eerie about his personality. But even so she felt safe. She had a very protective dog, and was confident in the fact that she was stronger than she looked.
She strolled down the dirt path, humming her sweet songs, smelling her sweet bouquet of wild flowers, looking as sweet as ever: her blond hair simmering half way down her back and her eyes as light and clear as the sky. Ali continued down her path, encountering all the things life wanted to teach her. Ali loved sunny days like this, perfect for a walk. In her life she habituated herself to walking very far, and the majority of the time, in the sunshine.
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