“My Best Friend Who Never Spoke”
By Bailee Haase
In fourteen short years you had taught me all I needed to know.
You taught me that my emotions were okay to show.
You held my hand for as long as you could,
And I always knew you would.
Time was not on our side,
And every night I cried.
My memories of you are supposed to be shared,
I can now see who truly cares.
I carry you with me where ever I go.
You are my best friend, this I know.
May 24th came so fast.
Brought on so much of the past.
All gathered in a tiny room.
Emotions heavy with gloom.
Strangers came and went,
Leaving an eerie scent.
Meetings with doctors came with dread.
You were unable to attend, chained to your bed.
Unhappiness in the air.
The future so hard to bare.
We had so many memories we shared.
Trying so hard to be tough and unscared.
Goodbye my best friend.
You should have been spared.
“I am currently attending Nicolet College. I am working towards transfer credits in the hopes of becoming a genetic counselor and receiving a minor in Spanish. I wrote this poem in the memory of my little brother who passed last May."
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“Why”
By Gary Zarda
Run for the elusive
Runner’s high, they say.
Not much more than the
Oxygen-laundering of an otherwise
Stagnant brain.
Run for the knowing
Of a limitless will, others say.
Mere compensation for
Nagging doubt amid
A daily, abstract grind.
To be honest, for me
It’s hunger for a measure of glory.
The glimpse of home,
Beckoning as finish line;
The woof of a friend,
Cheering my arrival;
The steam, the kneading
Beneath the sheets of a waking masseuse
I’ll not trifle with ethereal pursuits.
I’m no marathon monk.
I run to win.
“In an activity-averse era, many ask runners a question that we too often elevate to the existential to separate ourselves, further, from the crowd that mocks our passion: 'Why do you run?’ Recently, I came to a realization that, for me, it really just heightens an appreciation for simple, yet glorious, things.”
