Luminous.

Our word for the day?
It's Luminous.
And all I can think about
is "Lumous Maxima"
Where is my wand?
Where is my Ron?
If I had one wish,
and one wish only?
Honestly, it would be
"For Harry Potter to be real"
and for me to be a part of it all.

I wanna be magic.

-Shannon Martinez




Luminous

Hi. I was very unhappy with my “Luminous” piece; it seemed very clunky and had no sense of cohesion. So, I decided to use some old song lyrics I wrote to convey the same message, but in a more poignant manner. That message being my distaste, not for religion, but for religion in the wrong hands. It is the worst weapon in the world; a divider and seldom a unifier. I believe in standing up for what you believe in and not what you are told to believe in. Well, I better stop before I sound preachy, these are just my thoughts out loud in electronic ink. Without further ado, a song that never saw the light of day… Luminous.


They’re setting fire to our door
In the name of the father, son, and ghost
They’ve preconceived our suffering
This is what comes from questioning

The mob is started up the stairs to the bedroom where we sleep
The mob is started up the stairs to the bedroom where we dream
They scream
“Keep them meek, keep them foolish and docile, ignorance will keep them at bay.
Bound their hands, tie their eyes with blindfolds, we wish there was another way”

Awakened from our restless sleep, our searching lead to heresy
Still we’ll trade their lies for honesty til’ they find a better way
Falling face first reaching terminal speed, from the heaven that we once believed
As martyrs burn in effigy for the angels we betrayed
Truth will become our legacy
It’s the relic that we’ll seed
Until integrity succeeds

They’ve laced the pyre with gasoline
They spit and cast their stones in violent mockery
Refrain our lips from quivering
And as strike the match our defiant voice echoes to eternity

Awakened from our restless sleep, our searching lead to heresy
Still we’ll trade our lives for legacies til’ they find a better way
Falling face first reaching terminal speed, from the heaven that we once believed
As martyrs burn in effigy for the angels we betrayed
Truth will become our legacy
It’s the beacon that we’ll seed
A luminous light that supersedes

-Ryan Baker


Luminous.

A subpar performance substituted for substance
She withheld the ending, just to watch it happen
A cardboard canvas dancing to the dawn of apocalypse
Vertebrae snappin’ under high-heel tappin’
Bones break on the 2 and 4, don’t forget to use your hips
It sounds like our song—wait you forgot the words?
Did you ever really know them or did you just play along?
You never have to try when you pretend like you belong
And with a smile so luminous and a strength so hideous,
You are my tiny holocaust, my baby atom bomb.

-Tylor Sherman

Alarm

Alarm.

I'll just keep hitting the snooze button
on this alarm poem.
it's back to bed for at least another fifteen.

-Shannon M

Alarm

Five inches now from freedom
Four years scraping at the underside of roots
Three dozen smuggled dinner spoons, and I’m still yet to break through
Two lives I hadn’t taken
One Jury that took mine
Five appeals all overthrown
Four years since I’ve seen my wife
Three alarms now sounding, as I run through the courtyard span
Two guards now open fire
One bullet meets the back of this innocent man

-Ryan Baker


Alarm

"I wonder what you're like when you're sweet."
"Oh, well my smile sends feeble men three-quarters way to death.
I drain riverbeds, strip land from peasants and place it in the hands of thieves.
I'd hate to alarm you with that kind of chaos.
I'd hate to see the madness my kindness could bring.
And that's why I never show you darling.
The world itself would fall apart!
God, what a stupid thing to say to me.
I'm sorry I'm not as affectionate as you'd like me to be."
Yes... I wonder indeed.

-Tylor Sherman

Ship.

Ship

Fading away behind tired eyes
Sheets; waves that cool and calm me to sleep
Tonight, inside my mind I’ll be swimming
With a lantern light in tow, I’ll be plunging
Deep and down, into my minds darkest caverns
Melting into the depths as plastic over flame
Each abyss awaiting a visit, like the loneliest of widowers
They welcome me with cold arms and pull me close with undertow
Each visit brief and fleeting, as I leave I hear each water’s body weeping
I dive and dive
Searching for something, unaware of what it may be
I dive
Deeper, darker and heavier still
Lungs begging me to retreat to the surface
Where they can breathe and where I may wake
But I am not ready to wake, lungs be damned
The lantern light falls upon a sunken vessel
No more than a league away
Legs pulse as arms claw, pulling me down
Deeper, darker and heavier still
Finally, water wrinkled feet touch down on the wooden planks of the sunken ship
Just as my lungs give out, I grab the nautical wheel and guide the ship to the surface
Where I gasp and wake
And for a night, just one night, I was a Captain

-Ryan Baker

Ship.

He is a cruise liner ship.
Big and luxurious.
at least that is how he rides the waves.
crashing over them.
destroying them.
the antithesis of delicate.

she is a row boat.
with old wood and flaking paint.
He doesn't appreciate the stories her cracks tell
about all the places she's been.

She loves the waves
She embraces their curve
and never interrupts their watery dance.

He wasn't meant for her.
How could he really love an old row boat?

I can't wait til that ship has sailed.

-Shannon Martinez

Ship.
I've carried you far enough.
Abandon me.
The good times stay at the shorelines.
We're at war.
This ship never planned to bring you back,
I looked for a way out and found a league of fools.
When you kissed your girls goodbye,
I chartered a course for suicide.
Your wives will bed land-locked sailors,
You'll rest at the bottom of the sea.
You will know the life I have known,
Since the ocean's warmth betrayed me.

-Tylor Sherman

Hunger.

Hunger

Catatonic
Every muscle starving, thirsting, dying
Even though he is as dead as dead man can be
He still breathes faintly, dying evermore as each breath leaves
In the darkness of silhouetted trees, he spots below his victim soon to be
He crashes down upon his prey, who thrashes like an injured beast
Now in the madman’s toothy snare; a lock that won’t release
The dead man drinks until his prey lay silent, catatonic
Now alive as a dead man can be
So satisfied, so far from hungry

-Ryan Baker



hunger

We laid in your bed for hours.
You kissed me in all the right places.
You know the spot.
mmm yeah,
right there.
You told me about how your mom died.
And all your plans to change the world.
And all I could think about was how hungry I was.
For food,
not you.

-Shannon Martinez

Hunger

Everyone smelled like open guts.
It was honest, it was ugly, and it got us through the night.
We ate the earth and searched among the wreckage.
They took their share, but could not stop.
I felt their fingers reaching for my rations.
I crept to corners to keep my hunger fed.
Now the fallout dictates where we roam and where we sleep.
They say I should forsake you, but you saved me from a stoic life.
The men will move ahead, and leave us both to die.
But If I live for you, then and only then will I survive.

-Tylor Sherman