Chapbook 2022

The Catlin Gabel School Senior Poetry Writing class final projects.

2022 CGS Senior Poetry Chapbooks

Acknowledgments To a journey's start. To the teachers, friends, and peers who have brought me here

Studio floor - 1-2 SAT Day - 3 Burnout - 4 Open Door Policy - 5-6 Countdown to Flatline - 7

SAT Day Shifting Feet Instructions are dragged Through anxious ears Clock starts A pen clatters down Paper sheet Rustling and shifting Rhythmic ticks Time slipping by Stand up, stretch Sit down. Breathe. Your mother fed you Grammar for breakfast Shit. I forgot long division again

Stand up sit down Freeze. The numbers are shifting Like magnets Swimming across the kitchen fridge Clock stops Calculators clang &nbsp;A sigh shivers down my spine The college board sucks anyway.

Open Door Policy The door is always open. Knob squeaking, the door Slips ajar: Sister slides&nbsp; Aside me. I could have sworn She never knocked. The door slams open The rubber-ended stopper Tremors and&nbsp; Chuckles nervously Brother Trudges in. Picking up, Shifting, And shuffling What's mine

Nobody shuts the door behind them Uninvited company constantly invades seeking an audience for their complaints And I wait– Stationary –Never needing&nbsp; to step outside Company will find me.

Countdown to Flatline Shallow breathing, Unresponsive, Slowed heart rate the textbook signs of overdose Cold hands, Confusion, Altered mental state my mind spectates as my hands shiver the textbook signs of overdose filling a shell that looks like her my mind spectates, as my hands shiver she slips through the cracks between fingers filling a shell that looks like her desperate for enough to charm her writhing sadness. she slips through the cracks between my fingers how did I miss this? desperate for enough to charm her writhing sadness Cold hands, Confusion, Altered mental state how did I miss this? Shallow breathing, Unresponsive, Slowed heart rate

Studio Floor Ten year olds stomp and tiptoe To throbbing music vibrating&nbsp; Through wooden beams “Elephant mouse mouse, elephant mouse mouse” Metal toed shoes chatter and click Leaving scuffs and scars highlighted by Tough black stains in&nbsp; Their wake. Spilled water is picked up by&nbsp; Slippers afraid of falling on&nbsp; Smooth vinyl. They jeté with as much force as possible &nbsp;before ricocheting into a contretemp.&nbsp; Sweaty palms squeak As they pull across&nbsp; The marks other dancers left behind

Padding in, Parents parade to the walls Cameras out. The floor presents its masterpieces Before they move on nothing but marks remaining.

Burnout (an imitation of Grief by Elizabeth Barret Browning) Listen, total burnout is motionless Only student with motivation spare Simply lacking sleep, fatigued, unaware Cry out to the world, merciless digress Of empty complaint. True resigned spite In students, with no will to rise at all For work, for food, on suns rise and fall The light fails to call. Affected student, write&nbsp; Reflections, unmotivated sorrow. As pack mule weighted past what it can bear Whipped forward to carry load after load Fallen from strain without a will to stand Encourage it kindly : it will lay there If it could move on, pain would withdraw.

Name

Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.