This poem, like the onion, has layers of meaning. The basic idea behind it is that inside, little though we like to admit it, we are neither good nor impressive. But we all put on so many masks, so many facades, to hide this fact, that few people have any idea who they really are. In “The Onion”, I imagine someone seeking out the truth of who they are and ignoring all they pretend to be. Each stanza has one less line than the one before it, representing another layer of the onion peeled back. As the last line says, you cannot put an onion back together. And in the same way, once you admit that you are bad by nature, you will never be the same again. You may decide to exchange your bitter layers of disguise for something sweeter and more homogenous, like an apple. But even apples have poisonous seeds in their core.

?Brenna is a writer, musician, and high school student. She enjoys studying foreign languages, cooking Asian food, writing stories and poems on her 1917 Corona typewriter, performing competitively on the flute and piano, spending time with her family, and reading and discussing good books. She is currently writing the first draft of a novel she began in November 2015.