Teen Ink

Advanced Search Results

• Poetry > Free Verse
  jeopardy

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  it’s an inevitable kind of hurt; one you’ve been expecting for quite some time. you clench your fists, until your nails break the thin skin of your palm. not three days ago, he had pressed a kiss into each, folding your hands closed gently. as if that could hold his love. save it for...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  (snow)

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  the snow settles like ash, alien on my sun-loved skin. you pull my hat down around my ears, and my skin tingles where your fingers brush it. in two weeks i’ll hate you. but right now, your smile is the only one i’m concerned with....
• Poetry > Free Verse
  seasons

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  i ought to mark our time with seasons; winter, when it was new; fresh; pure, like the powdery snow that settled around us, as we sat on your front steps. your eyes were my north star. spring, when we were reborn. when you taught me to dance in the middle of the mall. when we were small a...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  coastline

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  i’ve never been one for clichés. never wanted the boy-next-door. or a white picket fence, or 2.3 kids with bland names, like mary or adam. i never wanted a desk job, or a glass of red with dinner, or a dog named spot. i didn’t dream of a big white wedding, or THE ONE. (all caps of...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  stitching up your circuit boards

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  when the lights go down, she falls apart quietly in the corner, away from her fairytales and fables. too far for prince charming to find, but too close for god to save. and maybe that’s how she likes it? she’s not sure anymore. too far gone to consider changing again. she thinks ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  the birth of a killer

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  they teach her how to kill, in the dark of night, in an abandoned impound lot, alone but for burned out husks of cars. they hand her a gun, and tell her to aim. someone points at a kid near a wall, small and shivering, and scared. he’s her brother’s best friend. or, he was. ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  (she'll be running to be running, 'cause it's all she knows to do)

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  stateless person, three passports, a handful of pictures, and a bag of tacky souvenirs, from greece, russia, china, spain. all that’s left of the girl-who-ran. the police gather the items, the evidence of a life lived alone, of a live spent running, from plane to plane, from airp...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  science and faith

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  you place your lot with the all-knowing. you think it will save you. i prefer to know. i’ve spent too much time placing my fate in the hands of beings more powerful that a little girl. now i like to handle my own matters. with facts proved by cold, impersonal science. you laugh, and ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  of god and guns

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  a religion of war; where guns are god and bibles are filled, cover to cover, with the names of its martyrs. daddy prays to this god, his fingers clenched around an amber deity. grandpa did too, until his god called him home. my brother's a convert; a child of peace, dirtied b...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  all these things that i've done

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  show me a place you still belong (traitortraitortraitortreason) too many faces, too many names (forgive me father) a blur of an ego caused a minute of failure a minute a twitch a trigger (for i have sinned) one name that matters one body that matters that people remember ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  cry me a river (and throw me a rope)

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  cry me a river, and don’t you dare let me drown. your hands clench at your sides, a fire in your eyes the clouds in your head swirl tighter, grow darker. yes, dear, the cold grip of love’s got you whipped the iron hand around your heart just keeps getting tighter, tighter with eve...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  we were infinite

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  one old photograph, pressed between the pages of a book that’s falling apart shows two hands innocently edging towards each other. this aching tenderness, not yet healed, makes them move hesitantly and the girl still hates what she sees in the mirror and the boy still lives in the ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  salvation

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  at this point, there isn’t much left to say. not anymore. because words can be twisted, and there’s a lifetime’s worth of conversation we’ve yet to have. and, now, there’s not enough time, enough chocolate, enough tissues, to get through it all. and i’m not quite sure ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  tiny dancer

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  (hold me closer, tiny dancer) you hum the song, soft as can be into your darling daughter’s little ear, because it’s the only lullaby you know. not quite a lullaby, of course, just a song without swearing or sex. she sleeps peacefully in your arms, tiny and beautiful. you can’t belie...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Love Is

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  Love is silly is water gun fights to decide what to paint the bedroom is flour wars in the kitchen with no survivors is tickling each other senseless, just because you can Love is quiet is walking down the street at two in the morning is reading different books in the same room is eye convers...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  maternal instinct

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  they hand you this screaming, red-faced alien, whose nose is mashed to one side, and whose eyes are screwed shut. and you don’t think that you’ve ever seen something so beautiful. you’re crying, so much, you can barely see her precious face. she wiggles, thrashes, smacks your chest angri...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  the world stops

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  the world stops, when mommy doesn’t come home one day when daddy picks you up from kindergarten, instead when he won’t tell you why you go home to his house where he lives with uncle gilead. the world stops, when you don’t get a phonecall from mommy to say goodnight when you refuse to go...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  take one --

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  take one – a boy grins, a girl laughs takes his hand, squeezes innocently falls a little bit in love take two – they’re a little older, now a little wiser, a little more jaded the girl doesn’t laugh much, anymore and the boy only smirks take three – the girl gets a letter callin...
• Fiction > Realistic Fiction
  Leaving

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  He walks into the apartment and notices the brown leather suitcases are sitting by the door, still covered with the faded stickers from past travels. The wall has a lighter colored square from where the photograph had been so harshly yanked down, and it unnerves him. It’s cold and silent in t...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  breath (in out, in out)

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  (in out, in out) In Chicota, a little girl is born And her parents cried with joy (praise the Lord, their prayers are answered) In Albany, a little girl grows up far to quickly And everyone tells her it was fast, they didn’t feel a thing (but, oh, does she feel it) In L.A., a not so ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Answer

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  Darling, you asked me what I’d do If you were to die tomorrow Well, threw my head back And laughed Saying it was silly of you to ponder such morbid things Darling, you told me that you loved me And that you wanted to keep me forever Well, I looked at you And deadpanned “Well, of...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  What Have You Lost?

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  Darling, what have you lost? Your sanity? Your heart? Your soul? Or maybe you've lost yourself in the process. ...Have you lost your talent? Your hope? Your dreams? Maybe you've lost your will. ...Have you lost you voice? Your laugh? Your very breath? Tell me, what have you l...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Where the Blugrass Grows

  

  By BerryliciousCheerio, Kailua, HI

  You would find her where the bluegrass grows Where the dreams rolled high She could hear the Earth move And she could touch the sky The trucks rumbled by And, oh my She could fly She wouldn’t wake up in the morning...