listen

Sneakers slap cold pavement as cars rumble, spitting gasoline. Chatter slips from lips seeping sound into cell phones. Store doors snap shut as radios blare. Motorcycles click to ignition. Salvia soaked mouths furiously chomp mint gum. Sirens ring attracting everyone’s stare. Lone musicians pounds drums, their rough callused hands scraping the fine skin. Newly weds smooch smacking red lips. Girl’s hums quietly and touch hands in a game of Mary-Mack. Basketballs thump blacktop and bounce off a rusted blackboard. Old men bump elbows on parking meters. Squirrels get squashed by the thick tire of a Jeep as their bones crack, splicing inside. Fists punch steering wheels as horns beep. A paintbrush’s fine bristles coat color onto an old building. A plane roars. A dog barks. Cars slam. Over and over again it’s the sounds of life. So, just stop and listen…

Bike
To the playground

Walk
To the middle

Lay
On the structure

Stick
Headphones in your ears

Pass
One to me

Press
In my ear

Listen
To the soundwaves

Dismiss
The beauty

Stop

Wonder
About the world

Think
About the sun

Contemplate
The rain

Remove
Music from aural orifice

Smile
To myself

Remember
The last two years

Growing

Maturing

Becoming
Who we are

Smirk
At life

Know

This is how it should be

He had inched closer
To the radio in his bedroom
White noise was blaring
But it had a monotonous ring

It was a soft, light hissing
Of words in another tongue
But he understood every vowel
Every consonant of the slithering

Sentences that grabbed his neck
And held on tightly 'til his eyes went black
Water began to drip from the speakers
Somehow enticing him

A bath had formed around the boy
He was on his hands and knees
In a trance by the whispers
That penetrated his mind

The boy stood on command
By the glass-shattering stereo
And he stared without purpose
At its immoveable plastic shell

The water then stood before him
Extending its wet core into arms and legs
Until it was what one may call human, but strangely that
It's body had absolutely no fat

It's thin fingers grew out into freakishly long
Fingernails while it's head gradually grew black hair
The eyes, deeper than the ocean, shined with a darkness
Which was surrounded thickly with more black.

It's teeth grew sharp and rotten
Along with it's forked black tongue
Which still sang the white noise of the radio
And it's skin was almost translucent in it's whiteness

It stared at the boy, eyes and mouth open wide
And a sinister, sinister, lick of the lips
It stepped closer to the boy, dripping water
And it screamed

It was a paralyzing shriek
Louder than any white noise lighting the background
Shaking the room it screamed
"Listen."

Nobody listens to me
Why do I try?
I know no one will
Listen to my warning
But I try anyway
And only you
Listen to me
But they don't
Believe you
ALet them die
We tried to tell them
They're coming
They'll be here soon
Maybe then they'll realize
They should've listened
To us more often
Just before they die

Listen to me
I have an idea
Please don’t dismiss it as a joke.
Just because you think you know something
Doesn’t mean you’re right.
Don’t just say it’s immature
Before you give it a single chance.
Your opinion can’t always be correct
And neither can mine.
If you don’t agree
It’s alright
It’s okay
But first you have to listen to me
To my side of the story.

Listen to Me

By Katelyn Jewell
Westford School, Grade 8

Listen to me
I have an idea
Please don’t dismiss it as a joke.
Just because you think you know something
Doesn’t mean you’re right.
Don’t just say it’s immature
Before you give it a single chance.
Your opinion can’t always be correct
And neither can mine.
If you don’t agree
It’s alright
It’s okay

"Hey! That's my sister!"
"Omigod, have you heard..."
So many people,
So many words,
"I don't like her outfit"
"What am I s'posed to say?!"
It's amazing how much there is,
That we have to say,
Sputtering, spouting out,
A pure river of words,
Some quiet, some loud,
And many unheard,
Most in meaningless chatter,
There's no doubt about it,
But honestly, how on earth,