I never did care for publication
I never did care for acknowledgement, nor realization
I seek only to make you think
as I submit my final poem to TeenInk;
I'm twenty years and three months old now
perhaps,
perhaps
they will not edit my words nonsensically
nonsensical
don't:


"The End of the Beginning"

O, Brand New Darkness
stark and cold
madness burns to bill and fold
The night is young
and day is old
spreading such is ancient mold

O, Brand New Darkness,
stark abyss
sparring light, to coo and kiss
Flesh and lust
I tell you this
Infectious is the sinful bliss

Sojourning in the scattered light
the answers call with all their might
in poets' eyes, the killers then
mastered all, without, within

I wish it were that we were free
to ride the storm, to drink the sea
but we are lost, as fallen leaves
bound by fate and force to breathe

When the time has come for all to fail
the blackening tide, the shadowed veil,
the lights are dim and dust prevails
what will become of all our tales?

Crushed beneath all time and space
we cannot discern, we cannot relate
we cannot stand, nor re-position
but if we dose our eyes, begin to listen
A brand new light begins to glisten

Peace and love from Chicago