a man’s game of tag' concerns the topic of child sex abuse and its connection to religious sin. This work is about a girl who escapes sexual abuse from men with the help of her mother's words and devotion to God. The mother believes that if the girl gets touched by a man, she would have to carry that sin on with her, symbolizing the rules of the classical game, tag. After she turns eighteen, she no longer has the protection of her mom, which later makes her 'it', representing the dangers of being a woman in the world. I was inspired through hearing the sexual harassment experience’s of friends and classmates, which shaped my perspective on the way sexual abuse cases are dealt with by law enforcement. Sexual harassment has become so common that most cases aren’t dealt with appropriately while more women and children become victims. I hope this poem increases knowledge of the reality girls have to experience growing up and how it influences their adult life.

This piece is my experience whether or not I truly know someone. Throughout my life many people have left or excluded me. This poem is meant to express my feelings towards or about those people and how looking forward I want something or someone brighter.

"Spero" follows a young and frightened Mallory as she finds herself stuck in an elevator on what she believes is the most important night of her life. To ground her and keep her from panicking, is Spero, a man unshaken by their situation. He serves as the personification of a lesson I myself, had to learn. This screenplay most integrally tackles the question of anxiety, and more importantly, paints anxiety as a question. It asks the watcher quite simply, why worry if there's nothing you can do to change the situation you are in? Don't spend hours weeping because of something you cannot control. Learn to be grounded in your reality, and let that send you into a brighter tomorrow. I have always struggled with this notion, but while writing this screenplay and truly thinking about it, it felt important. This screenplay went through many drafts, starting out as a commentary on death and the fear of it, but it's final form, to me, is it's strongest and most meaningful. It took many drafts, but in the end it was worth it.

This piece explains the experience I had with an unhealthy relationship in which I was emotionally abused and treated poorly. It conveys the raw emotion of things I wish I could say to that person, and is formatted to look like somebody is venting. I chose this piece because it has a special place in my heart and it’s one of my favorite pieces I’ve written. It was shortened due to the word limit, but my goal is for it to reach others who may have gone through similar experiences.

This flash fiction was written for a project in my creative writing class where we had to write a short piece to a photo we selected. When I was presented with the photo of a lone island sitting on the edge of a limitless lake and sky, I had this indescribable feeling that was as magical as it was sorrowful. At first, the island that appeared as if it were floating in the sky made me think of a wondrous world where possibilities were endless. But as I looked closer and noticed its slightly diluted image, I began wondering what could’ve caused such a brilliant image to turn so gray. I tried to combine all those fantastical sensations I felt with a topic grounded in reality. The topic explored is one of remembering the days we spent with our friends, believing in magical worlds where floating islands could really exist. Then as we all grow older and that belief starts to disappear, it seems that all those friendships and imaginary worlds fade along with it. A sign that it’s time to move on from those wistful days. But even so, as we grow to realize the dullness of our reality and fragility of friendships, those child-like fantasies don’t have to completely disappear. There’s still hope that those friends and make-believe places we cherished may be found once again.

This collection reflects on the complicated feelings surrounding love. Growing up watching the relationships around me I thought I knew what love would feel like. To an 8 year old me, it was simple. I watched my dad bring home flowers and chocolates– a sign of true love in my eyes. When I got a bit older, my parents started telling me things. Being an only child, it is a constant fight for who’s side to take. Living in a generation of hookup culture didn’t help either. In an attempt to restore my faith in relationships, I picked up romance novels. Now in my 16 year old self, I see parts of hopeful 8 year old me peaking through. While my relationship with love is still shaky. It’s something we’re all trying to figure out. I’ve seen 30 year marriages fall apart and first love blossoming through the halls of my highschool. Love is an experience we’re constantly surrounded by.

My first poem, "In Her Tears," is about my relationship with my mother, and how much I wish she understood what she means to us. Recently I noticed how much she does to take care of me, even at her own expense. I wanted this poem to show the love and guilt I feel when she cries. My second poem, "Daydreams," is heavily based on my first relationship and how blindly I fell for this person without considering all the faults in the relationship. I was quite literally daydreaming, creating a perfect reality in my head that only I saw. Both these poems are based on completely true and personal experiences in my life, and I simply wanted to share my thoughts on these events after having done a lot of reflecting.

This piece I wrote takes a unique spin on death and the concept of the grim reaper. It celebrates the ups and downs of someone's life and then the unfortunate reality of it all coming to an end. This piece starts with the main character being given a book that is untitled, and filled with his life story. As the story continues the book writes his life as he is living it. By the end of the piece, the book describes his final breath as his life comes to an end. The piece ends with the characters name appearing on the cover of the book which is by this is titled The Title Comes Last.

This piece comes from the depths of my own definition of freedom. In this piece I’m describing and amplifying the feeling of pleasure and how the perception of others can trap us into this narrative of pleasing people. I titled it 5 as it took me five times to instill and understand the value of pleasure for myself. I wrote this piece as I was ending a relationship with someone because of the way I wasn’t loving myself, I found pleasure in the idea of being with them but not with myself.

I’ve always been really interested in immortality, and so I was inspired to write a kind of love story which involves not only these themes, but the ideas of mortality, heaven, and hell as well. I wrote this piece around a year ago in 2022, and throughout the process of writing it I clearly remember questioning even my own mortality (as well as other people's). It was definitely a very interesting creative journey for me.

This piece was inspired by Gloria Victis , a statue by Antonin Mercié that I saw in the National Gallery of Art. I knew nothing about the sculpture's original meaning, which allowed me to be very free with my poem and interpretation.

I have always used writing as an outlet to digest my feelings. To turn the ugly into something incandescent. It is easier to face my pain when I can transform it into art, shame into pride, loss into creation.

This is a personal piece about when I was sexually assaulted in middle school. Being sexually assaulted has always been a very difficult thing to talk about and writing about it creatively helps me process and grow from it more. Sexual assault is a lot more common than a lot of people realize and isn't addressed enough. Even when it is addressed many times the victim gets blamed for "asking for it" or "provoking it". People who were sexually assaulted deserve justice and deserve to not be afraid anymore. I want to bring my story to light and I hope that it might empower other people to share their stories.

Originally, this piece wasn't going to be a huge demonstration of my writing skills and creativity, but now, I believe it to be one of the pieces I am most proud of to share with the world. This piece helped me deal with emotions I had kept for a really long time. This piece deals with death, grieving and regret and I believe it to have many interpretations for any reader. The process for writing this had a lot of ups and downs. Multiple times I had considered scraping it because I couldn't come up with anything or I thought I couldn't deal with the emotions in the piece, but now, looking at the final piece gives me a massive feeling of pride for myself and my creative skills. It wasn't the easiest to write, but now feeling slightly more apathetic towards it, I can deal with my emotions in a more healthy way and can look back and feel content with the piece and how I worked through it.

My short collection of three poems seeks to display my musings about the world, creativity, poetry, memories, and the difference between dreams and reality. I find that poetry helps me to express myself in a pure way, uncut and uncensored. Even though I chose what I consider to be more light-hearted pieces for this submission, I also think that poetry helps us to work through darkness, whenever it touches our lives.

This piece is about the feeling of knowing that you will see a loved one again even though they have passed away. This came from a place in my heart from when I lost my grandma who I was extremely close with and what helped me to cope with it I thought about seeing her again when I pass.

Nonno is a poem about my experience with my grandfather who had Alzheimer's and eventually passed away. Nonno is what I called him, it is the Italian word for grandfather. I'm a young writer finding inspiration in my life events, whether they’re good or bad. The world’s beauty fuels a lot of my pieces, providing a backdrop for my thoughts on stuff like grief and personal issues. Through poetry, I am able to share emotions and memories, creating a connection between my experiences and the world around me.

Grief is such a multifaceted topic that everyone deals with in a different way. I wanted to create a piece that had a bit of an ambiguous ending, but still related grief to escapism. It is crucial that everyone acknowledges the various ways that people grieve, so that we grow to be more understanding and supportive of one another.

This piece depicts my experiences as a transgender person. I wanted to show how it was hard for me to find myself and the terrible things I did to myself because of my appearance. But I also wanted to show the beauty of being trans, the beauty of being able to see yourself grow every single day and to find people who support and love you. I use the idea of static because even though it's something you'll never be able to feel, I can imagine the exact sensation. A constant moving, like small sparks setting off every second, it doesn't exactly hurt but it's so uncomfortable that it needs to be gone. It needs to go away. That's how I felt for most of my life. I needed to rip off my skin, I needed to do something about it or else it would get worse. But once then I found out that I didn't have to be what other people told me to be, and I could just be myself. That's when the static would fade and when I could finally be happy.

What If, is about a person haunting all of your un-answered questions. Someone that you could never figure out, and wonder what would've happened if they never left? This poem is about all of the thoughts that have crossed my mind throughout the past year.