Alone
By Marco Zhao, Outside Contributor
A black cat bringing horror,
and you feel like a foreigner
walking down a midnight street,
listening to a melancholic beat.
The fear that shivers down your spine,
as if predators were creeping behind.
The wind moans as you walk,
you feel like your being watched by a hawk.
Always in fear, frozen in fright, dismay and distress.
There is nothing you can do, it is a mess.
A lone streetlight you walked past,
that might be the last.
Only your shadow accompanies you,
now you are feeling blue.
If only you weren’t alone
and you are in your home…….
Alone, alone, alone, alone you tread,
the words repeat in your head.
Alone, alone, alone, alone you tread,
the words repeat in your head.
An Ocean Blue Mirror
By Lauren Kim, Outside Contributor
There lies a mirror
Sitting quietly in a forgotten corner, carefully hidden under a glimmering blue blanket
A mirror, of veracity and valor
Shining and lustrous
Cerulean and boundless
Stare into the deep recesses of the insightful glass
And one will be dazzled by a grandiose, otherworldly place
Thriving cities and towns of pastel coral and creeping algae
Highways and jammed lanes of darting fish and gliding turtles
All lovingly tucked under a shining, watery blanket
Gaze at the majestic waves
Crashing into solid rock, monotonously and stringently
The boundless mass of blue
To whom all life owes their lives to
Now there! Is a hint of a smile on your lips
Hair tousled by the baleful wind
Ears blessed by the whispers of the tides
Nose entranced by the salty perfume from the far corners of the world
A simply perfect world, no?
Yet as you tentatively flip the flawless mirror
Noses are pinched, ears are covered, eyes are tightly shut
For the other side of the dreamy mirror
Lies a cracked, calamitous, malicious mirror
Merciless and turbulent
Stare into the deep recesses of the foul glass
And you’ll see a furious, lifeless place
Graveyards and tombs of a million fallen vessels
Alleys and backstreets of snarling beasts who bit, poison, and maim
All tucked under a stormy-grey, dreary blanket
Shudder at the mountainous waves
Destroying treasured lives, particle by particleIn a tumultuous valley of endless, looming water
As they crash down in a flurry of inky, lonely darkness
There lies a mirror
Sitting quietly in a forgotten corner, carefully hidden under a glimmering blue blanket
A mirror, of horrendous tragedy and ecstatic triumph
Cracked, wrecked, evil, and gleaming, perfect, lustrous
Veracity and valor thrives on both sides of the ambiguous mirror
Now, which do you dare gaze into?