1st Place

6 Feet Away

By Xuan-Anh

Keep your distance
Be wary of your fellows
Don’t endanger your community
Stay 6 feet away

Line up outside the grocery store
Wear your masks
Wear your gloves
Remain 6 feet away

Go on bike rides alone
Speak to flickers on a screen
The streets are quiet
I long to be 6 feet closer

Someday I will see them again
Friends or
Coworkers or
Grandparents or
Even strangers
The city will wake from its slumber
And I will joyfully say
We used to be 6 feet away

2nd Place

Metanoia

By Nicole

Change is predestined. It is as inevitable as losing your first teeth.
It gallops around you like an unbound horse.
It senses your fears and it feeds off of it like it is its last meal.

Change is a vortex that whirls you around and shows no signs of stopping.
It is the new ride at every amusement park,
and it is the one you were always terrified of when you were a kid.

Change is unpredictable and inhumane.
It is the Anubis of everyday life.
It judges without fear, it takes what it needs and forces out the rest.

3rd Place

The Changes

By Isabel

Waking up in the morning
Processing this change
Our new normal
Seems strange
All communications only through phones
All birthday celebrations
Have been postponed
Everyone learning to be homebound
We all must stay home
Where it’s safe and sound
We can only travel
Different places in our home
Missing love ones
Makes me feel so low
WHEN WILL THIS END!
This change came so fast
But it doesn’t want to change back
How long will this last?
Nobody seems to know
Missing the outside world
Time goes by slow

Honorable Mention

[Moment]

By Angelica

Melancholic
watching you grow
Some things matter more
than they once did before

Change has molded you wiser and colder

To see too far forward
you couldn’t bare
To see life all at once
an endeavor too rough

The gift of time freezes
life as present moments
and change with unthaw what has given you enough

The scent of summer air
once again seeps through my windows

This previous moment

please, stay a while longer
Let me understand you piece by piece; grow fonder

Knowledge and love stories for my journey…
Before you fade away

By Anthony

S-Stressful, Shiftless, and monotonous
T- Tiring, tedious
U- utterly incapable of comprehending online lessons
C- controversial and corona
K- keeping sanity

Old School

By Evan W.

It used to be cool
Going to class with friends
But now it’s even cooler
Staying at home in bed
Until I have to get up
And do homework and chores
But then I get to
Play with family and especially
Have time to myself
New school

My Expression of Change

By Gabby F.

Unwanted and unseen
Expected yet forgotten
When comfortability demands control.

Normalized in the beginning,
Like an infant child
Growing into an insolent teen.

Or the seasons and their cycles,
Or the seeds sprouting into flowers,
Or the surprise rain in the desert.

Vacation, peace, and schedules;
Interrupted, flipping the switch,
Snapping us back to reality.

Gusts of tension and anxiety
From the bump in the road.
Fighting fate and authority.

Suspending flexibility
In the demand to conform
To contemplate a solution.

Little did I know
This diversion
Is my reality.

A crooked road
I may always try
To make it straight.

It’s like searching for a constant
With a broken compass,
In a world full of instability.

Jennifer Mendieta

By Jennifer

She was born in this world, not knowing what her fate would bring.
Everyone made life seem easy.
Blindsighted she walked into the real world.

She quickly realized the harsh world she was living in.
A world built on competition instead of acceptance.
It challenged her.
Made her doubt herself.
She wanted to give up.
She was going to give up.

When she least expected it.
Hope rose from the ashes of her crushed dreams.
Failure is an opportunity to grow from.
She accepted the challenges life brought in her path.
Life is a mystery but she solved it.

Art Connects Poetry Pages:

 Tk-2 Poetry | 3-5 Poetry | 6-8 Poetry | 9-12 Poetry