LABYRINTH

1. LABYRINTH 2013

2. Labyrinth 2012-2013 • Members: • Samantha Baum • Eva Castillo • Dakota Cohen • Amanda Ellis • Elise Littlefield • Amanda Puig • Liana Salgado • Advisors: • Laural Olsen • Renee Pastor Cover Art by Amanda Ellis

3. Does Anybody Hear Her? • She is running a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction. • She is trying, but the canyons are ever widening in the depth of her cold heart. • So she steps out on another misadventure just to find • She’s another three years older, and three more steps behind. • She is yearning for a hunger and affection that she never felt at home. • She is searching for a hero to ride in and save the day. • In walks her Prince Charming and he knows just what to say. • A momentary lapse of reasoning and she gives herself away. • Does anybody hear her? Does anybody see? • Does anybody even know she’s going down today? • Under the shadow of a steeple, with all the lost and lonely people • Searching for the hope that’s tucked inside of me. • Judgment looms under every steeple. • With lofty glances from lofty people. • Can’t see past her scarlet letter, • And you’ve never even met her. • Does anybody hear her? Does anybody see? • By Anonymous

4. Fractured Reflection • She dawdles alongside me and speaks of her troubles and dreams. • She deserves better I continuously tell myself, every day I see her face. • She hypnotized me when she sang, when she spoke, when she kissed me. • Except the kiss didn’t happen; I made it up. • She stayed when the party disbanded and spoke of her troubles and dreams. • She was crying inside; I could feel her tears in my eyes. • She demanded of me to help her, to hold her, to dance with her. • Except the dance didn’t happen; I made it up. • She asked my advice and spoke of her troubles and dreams. • She flung upon my shoulder; I supported her. • She wished to be more, to be priceless, to be worthy of someone’s love. • Except love was holding her, wishing It were worthy of hers. • I gazed into her eyes, into her essence of being. • I was looking in a mirror and finally seeing. • Perhaps we weren’t so different, she and I. • Both of us being broken inside. • By Anonymous

5. By Amanda Ellis

6. The empty universe stared me in the eye • Turbulence is perfected by the shaking window that divides the • perpetuating lonesome and I. • I look out toward the sea, • Sand clinging to my body • As I commit and engrave the placidity to my memory. • I inhale tranquility; • Life forever changed. • With seventeen dreamers stretched out on a wrinkled plaid sheet, • The stars bled restriction and twinkled freedom. • We were a single breakdown, a connected soul. • We polluted the sea with our imperfections as we melted into our own • ocean. • With our sisterhood existing through a crummy telephone connection, • All that remains are jagged-edged seashells • And fingerprint contaminated photographs • To justify this perfection. • By Anonymous

7. Wanderers • I wander through trees, like the scrawny fingers of giants reaching towards a blanket of black night, poking holes, clawing through galaxies and comets. I am a tiny bundle of energy moving quietly in the thick silence through empty alleyways over cracked sidewalks. I pace down these streets at a time which exists only when one wakes suddenly from a nightmare—the hours which many will die without ever experiencing. There are others like me—wanderers. We orbit like planets around the city, searching, seeking, but we don’t know what for. At this time of night we aren’t people. We are silhouettes. We are nothing. • Some are wanderers because they don’t have a choice. Because it’s their only chance of escape from their terrible life of consistency. They learn to flee their houses as quietly and discreetly as a ballet dancer moves with a symphony. A twist of the doorknob could give you away. Then comes freedom. Night washes over you like an eclipse, shadowing all you’ve ever known and you love it. Take a few steps and familiarize yourself with this unknown terrain, your bland, insipid world is now a maze, an artist’s canvas with dark purple paint still dripping from the edges. • We don’t speak, us wanderers, but there’s an indescribable force between us, like the magnitude of something more than ourselves. Behind every hooded silhouette, there is a story. A reason. A name. But that doesn’t matter for now. For now we are the silver glow of the moon, the whispering wind, and the silence. • By Kendall Stark

8. By Amanda Ellis

9. A note When I say that nobody speaks to me, mother, I’m half-lying. (I mean, teachers count, so…) Of course, your attention/interest span concerning my feelings is Incredibly low But you make an effort to understand, if not for just a few moments Of your busy adult life So picture this Your Daughter Seemingly antisocial Seemingly unapproachable With a desire, an aching desire, to evade all human contact Communication Participation Self-isolation juxtaposes gripes of Loneliness Crowded hallways make me paranoid Semi-empty hallways just plain creep me out, I stumble. Group work disturbs me As do the conversations that screech near my ear during lunch I think that disturbs me the most God help those poor souls Dense, naïve, infectious Those who maybe do know one or two things are hopelessly contaminated That’s beside the point, however When you think I’m making progress by starting to talk Don’t assume that those people ever talk to me again. By Victoria Silva

10. Lunch- a hodgepodge of writing I don’t even want to write anymore, repeating cliché after cliché Avoid becoming the hypocrite martyr I despise How can I preach if I am still so young? I detest these poems Yet I continue to write for I find no other friend As relatable as Pen and Paper, as understandable as Pen the speaker, Paper the host They understand me, They are me. Which is creepy in a way But no one else will listen Therefore I dedicate myself solely To my thoughts, to my interests To myself. (Thanks, Kerouac.) --------------------------------------------- green eyes, brown hair Even the back of his head pleases me so ---------------------------------------------- An empty table full of backpacks Well, until the girls return from the lunch line At least I have a table to sit at Right? Otherwise I’d float around like a slowly dying balloon You know, when it’s running out of helium Because I’m running out of Motivation. By Victoria Silva

11. By PolaDobrzynski

12. Food for Thought You are the Sawney to my Bean, And you are the Donner to my party. Before you wrecked my Dumaru, You wooed me with “Titus Andronicus” You Aztected my heart, And later you ripped my Jack. Lo, I was the fool, All along you Albert Fished for a compliment, But now I remain as silent as a lamb. So now, my heart AlexanderPearced, It’s time you Piers Paul Read Between the lines. Then meet me for a late lunch. By Emma Bernhardt

13. Doubt is the newspaper boy of reason is a stalactite in the cavernous skull is a mustard stain on the lapel of talent is every loose thread of every paperboy’s cap is all of the echoes ever diffused in the cloth of Hawaiian shirts is an expensive suit which fits badly By Luke Krsnak

14. Basketball In between the lines, I am free. Free from life, anger, and stress. The game of basketball is more than just a game, more than a hobby, It is my life. Without this “rock” in my hand, there is no me. Sometimes this “rock” is simply nothing but my imagination because if I do not have it physically, then I own it mentally. It’s a must. I feed my obsession by playing every day in any way possible, if not, then I am sober. Any type of temperature, weather, state, playground, park, gym, you can find me trying to improve my game. I compare my skills to “natural born talent,” it was my destiny to play this game. When defended I want to punish my opponents. Not because I’m mean, but because I can. By Anonymous

15. Lotus and Kelsey By Amanda Ellis

16. What would one do • For twenty golden flowers? • If one can buy anything • For twenty bucks • You may exchange an answer • For twenty more questions • But what would you earn • For twenty more thoughts? • Will life continue • For twenty million eons? • Would I give my life • For twenty unknown souls? • For the world • Endless Four Twenty. • By Anonymous

17. Mints and Markers By Amanda Ellis