Isabelle
Stories
Winding Road
This story is about my journey; it's not graphic. At all. It's about how I got from here to there.…I have had a lot of time to think. And I think about how I gave myself a scare, in a way. I alerted myself to reality. Even though at times it might have seemed like I was slowly dying, I think I was just making my way forwards. That's all we really …
Not Good Enough
I told myself I wasn’t good enough. That was my first lie, I think. As if an A minus differed from an A Or a size 0 differed from a size 00. I don’t know when I started believing myself. I think I was fourteen. I told myself that whatever I did, I di…
Reaper
The golden years are far from done But the blackness has set in And someone who once thought they had it won Is now immersed in sin. Black kohl lines lids of steel Silver shadow adorns one bloody eye Slate grey breaths turn Fate’s infamous wheel She …
The Right Kind of Coke
There was a timewhen she drank normal Coke from the plastic bottles and ate one large popcorn with every fixin’ at the movies and maybe a hotdog and if she went with her dad, she’d probably grab some Junior Mints too And then there was a time when s…
Anonymous
Once she dangled her feet in the blue water And sang around the campfire And toasted marshmallows And drank Coke And took photos of her friends and hung them on the refrigerator That was the time when she loved her sister And thought her mom hung the…
One Last Crown of Daises
The last time I saw you, we were barely fifteen and yet gathering no attention when we took our usual seats on the rickety wooden bench at the playground on 5 th street. All the mothers there knew us, we’d been there so long, and we in turn knew them…
Pretending
I can't pretend that I don't miss them Not while I'm still looking at their pictures. I can't pretend I don't see them Walking past the café on fourth. I can't pretend I don't hear them Not when they're shouting. I can't pretend that I can be free No…
Shakespeare's Sonnet
"I'm sorry." "I don't care." "I wrote you a sonnet." Now he has her interest. "A sonnet?" "Yeah, like Shakespeare." "Why a sonnet?" "I don't know." "Is it a good sonnet?" He looks at her, his chocolate eyes meeting her icy blue. "I don't know." "Th…
Who am I?
“Who am I?” I whispered, staring at my own hands in a kind of nervous fascination, eyeing the white scars and ragged half-moon nails that I’d come to love and appreciate. I could already see them gone, thrown out of the window in the garbage, no lon…
My One and Only
“You’re my one and only,” he promised, breathing lightly down her back. “I’ll never love another.” She smiled at him through half-closed eyes, before drifting off. Her breathing hadn’t even settled into a rhythm before he was gone. It was easy to …
What is Communication Worth?
“This has gone on too long,” I stood and declared.“It’s time we were a family and let our innermost thoughts be shared.”My brother turned around and my sister laughed in mirth“If you want to talk,” said she, “then tell me, what is communication worth…
The Eternal Twins
Since the dawn of timeBefore poets learned to rhymeThey have remained together yet apartFighting for supremacy in every being’s heart.One is dark like the night,Whose first instinct is to fightThe other is bright like the starsWhose light shines from…
Keeping Silent
I have felt so alone, pain you would never knowPain that remains inside you, pain that will never goI have felt this pain. This pain is part of meBut this part I have never let anybody see.I am a soldier in a foreign landGoing up against my enemy, ha…
It's Your Sixth Birthday!
I took out the gun. I pointed it at Harry. “Don’t move,” I hissed. He looked straight down the barrel of the Glock 17 and whimpered. “I won’t,” he said softly. I pushed the barrel of the gun against his forehead, and pulled the trigger, hearing the …
Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Cafeteria
Hark! the angels cry Up in the cloud-white sky Heaven looks a lot like school Even has that same slimy swimming pool. But I died today And I went along on my merry way I must say Heaven looks a lot like Masonic Ave. I opened the same doors to my clas…
Believe in Yourself
I believe in you. And you should believe in you, too. Believing in yourself is tough. It’s no easy feat But with my help We’ll get you there in a heartbeat. Learn to love yourself, first And if worst comes to worst Know that I love you, too. And I al…
Destiny's Children
They are Destiny’s children. We had no say in the matter. Children of Destiny are called for at birth To die, before their time And move on to a better place. Because they were not our children Twenty of them did not belong to this Earth They were n…
Khalida
Once there was a beautiful princess named Ijlal. She had hair the color of dates, and eyes as blue as the sea, eyes that were so captivating she had thousands of suitors falling at her feet every day. She had the most renowned kings and princes beggi…
The Woes of Being a Genius
The woes of being the best of the rest.…It’s working, working every day There’s truly no time to play Algebra at three And SATs at five Its no wonder geniuses don’t have lives. Your brain functions great, better so Than those who you’d like to know They awe you and shun you And are jealou…
Growing Up Muslim
Eight years old, and already on the Watch List…I stand in the line with my parents and sister, a line that stretches farther than my eye can see. Literally. I can barely make out the security desks at the front of the lines, but they are processing people like some sort of printer. The people are…