"Memory Lane" (Alexis Youngs)

The world turned to ash as she walked
Down the halls where the faceless people lived.

They watched her with dark sockets
Screaming mouths
Filled with bees

As she borrowed their wings
And flew
Upside down across the sky

Her desk grew arms
Glued nailed

The record is on repeat

She hears the gentle buzzing

And puts the world in a zip-lock bag
And they eat her wings

I love the surreal in this poem and the theme of the wings. The wings signify striving for change and that's something I greatly admire about this poem. 

"Salad Bar Misinformation" (Courtney Sniadecki)

“I think, maybe, we should try seeing other people,”
he says to me, as I stand in line at the cafeteria, waiting for

the lady in front of me to stop hogging all the ranch so
that I can have my turn with the white plastic bottle

I ask him to repeat himself because I don’t
believe that he’d do something like dump me in

a place as public as this, where the guy behind us is
so close that I can smell his garlicky breath and

when just a few moments ago, we were talking in his car
about work, about how his manager is incompetent at

hiring people for the holiday season, and
about how the lights are starting to go out in

their break room, and that he
didn’t know that fluorescents ever died

the only thing that’s changed between then and
now is the fact that I am carrying a salad that

at some point has stopped looking like a salad,
with the ranch dripping onto the mounds of bacon

could that be why he wants to leave? because my salad
looks so alien to him that I, myself, must not be normal

maybe if I add some chicken, I can tell him that
I’m trying to recreate the new salad that they have at mcdonalds

“I said… I think, maybe, we should try getting

away from these people,” he clarifies

I love this poem. The whole idea of this scenario is believable and extremely comical. This poem reflects relationships and essentially society.

Chapbook...(so far)

One Small Kingdom includes a collection of poems with a strong voice. The poems are created with purpose and potential lessons. The chapbook raises ideas of how to essentially keep your head above water. The poems contrast with reality and surreal scenery creating its own world. The voice is consistent throughout by mixing the collection of poems by creating a theme. This theme is striving for change and advice while beating the odds of uncertainty. Many characters emerge representing people or unconscious thoughts in one’s life. Metaphors create mental images to understand the physical and emotional world that we live in. The author purposefully entwines her work for a sole purpose of proposing something different for everyone. The chapbook promotes the fight and change in trials in life that come. 

Commission

I wish you would make that face.

That face that looks like a pineapple

so sensitively striking.

You’re right in the middle of coconut

milk and vinegar.

It was September 2^nd and all the peanut

shells were scattered in the sanctuary.

We ate a lot of peanuts that day. I had

been slow to anger.

Right now you’re a stale bagel and

I’m the fresh cream cheese. I can’t be

spread

anymore. I’m sorry for forgetting

the ingredient shipment. I promise to

forever be your servant.

Mary Ann Samyn

My Life in Heaven

“Shark Shark Shark, or Whatever It Is That You Want Next”

Chipping Decay

Fay spent her life

hooked unable to

see, speak, breathe

Grow up

The brain, spinal cord

marked broken bones—

skull fracture

Women’s prison

Battered brain and little

body. Consistent guilt

abuse, lost over the years

placement eligible

“living hell”

South Bend Tribune

Erasure of:

“Early Release Despite Child’s Death?”

One Small Kingdom

Dark Blue Pavement

Popular Tricks

Stranded Telephone Wires

Deep Sea Speed

Sandy Ice Cream

Intentions Under Constructions

Cop and Sweater

Individual Maze

Soft Streaks

Yellow Trees

Deep Sea Speed

It’s when you’re going

20 mph and shift to the

right to show the guy

riding your tail what you’re

working with

I’m not much of a potty mouth

more like the drain of a cleaned

hotel room

But driving slow…

Driving slow is your favorite

slice of cheese falling on a

blue, wool sweater

Going 75 alone with your

left hand at noon and a

cheeseburger in your

right

Soft Streaks

Christen got pink and whined, jumping

small leaps like a frog with a limp muscle.

People stared with dilated eyes−her father

blushing and hushing the child. The clerk

repeats, “will that be all sir?” All he can

do is stammer out chewed-up phrases.

She is unaware of values and figures.

To her it’s only paper. Christen was once

caught coloring green Jackson’s with

pink crayon. She knew life was easy, but

that man there−

stands on the road with a sign she cannot read.

Christen becomes calm, like an empty beer bottle

tossing back and forth in murky lake waves.

The clock ticked away as if it was a face, and the

minute hands were a twisting mustache to

show his fury. Her father could see her Jesus-like

compassion behind his green reading glasses—she pointed

to the corner of the street. She walked through

lifeless grass with traffic being the only sound when she

gave her candy bar to the man with the sign.

I wrote this poem a while ago, and tried to change some of the words and layout recently. However, I still feel like I could change some words or lines for it to be more effective. I don't feel that the poem should be tossed just changed in order to get the meaning across maybe a little better. 

Individual Maze

When I die throw the rest of my

tea in my flower garden, but buy me more

every month.

Eat a tuna sandwich for me.

Visit Goodwill on their half-off day and find

me a turtle neck to put in my drawer.

Tell me some bad jokes they are my

favorite.

Don’t sleep on my pillow I didn’t get to

wash it. Go to the beach with me and

bring someone new.

Please just try the tuna…

Don’t worry I just changed my oil.

I feel complete about this poem because it does exactly what I wanted it to accomplish. I wanted it to be honest and simplistic in its form to someone I wouldn't want to leave behind. After working with the breaks I finally came to these line breaks and as I said before, I feel completed about it.