by Avi Lohr ’24
Winner- Best Poetry
sometimes
when I’m alone with these walls I fly away
away to the land of my childhood
where I danced with fairies and played in the crystal stream
but now
the land has been twisted, the tree roots gnarled
the sunshine gone hazy with the ghosts of forgotten dreams
still
I see the beauty in the wildflowers that grow in the cracks in the pavement
the land has been twisted, not with unuse
but with all the broken things I send down the rabbithole because
I can’t bear them anymore
the roots have been gnarled, not with time
but with all the words I wished away
and all their cuts that never healed
and the ghosts that threaten to block out the sun
are the ghosts of who I once was
cast away on that healing spring wind
sometimes
when I’m alone these walls become words
I can feel them closing in, tighter and tighter until
I become the wildflower in the sidewalk crack