Silver With Envy

The day was dull until the door shot open. She ran towards me. She sat down. Took a breath. Told me she had big news to tell. I looked at the family photo behind her. Two proud parents. But they weren’t looking at me. She came first. I glanced back at her. Because if I didn’t, she’d whine. She wore an ebony black sweatshirt that day, and a bright white smile. I nodded. She launched. Her arms were not hanging, limp, lifeless at her sides. Nor crossed across her chest like mine. But active and expressive as she explained what had happened today. Her fingers squirmed. Wriggling like the live octopus legs I one time had at a sushi restaurant. They acted as though by moving as much as possible would somehow save them from being eaten. Her legs swung, back and forth. The same tempo as this annoying metronome I used for one clarinet lesson. I smiled slightly. She showcased a piece of paper that represented her achievement. Her ‘great’ feat was silver. I scoffed. Her silver couldn’t afford my praises. Not gold? I asked. I thought just because you tie a pretty ribbon on trash doesn’t make it special. Just because there were words like ‘NASA’ and ‘national competition’ doesn’t mean you’re some kind of genius. Just because mom and dad looks only at you doesn’t mean you’re gold. And I’m silver. She wore an ebony black sweatshirt that day, and an ebony black frown to match.

Ode to Red Velvet Cupcakes

Glance at it

Want it

You know you shouldn’t have it

So turn away

Yet look again

It’s as pretty as a blushing bride

Dressed in white

Something borrowed

Something new

Something old

Something of red hue

Grab it

Pop it

Won’t taste red

Would taste chocolate

Venture further

Light and airy

Almost like bubbles

It crumbles
Onto the floor

So we eat it

Off of the floor

But it’s fine

Let them eat red velvet cupcake

Thoughts for today

The bed creaks at night.

I tossed and turned

Just like I did

When I made spaghetti

One night at home.

Spaghetti and meatballs.

Meatballs sound so good right now.

Especially the ones from IKEA.

My sister spent a lot of time there.

Looking at furniture,

Comparing prices.

When before we just

Bought what we wanted.

Buying things.

Shopping seems like

Every single woman’s favorite hobby

Right next to flirting.

I don’t flirt.

But I do love grocery shopping.

Does that count?

Others say it doesn’t.

Some people still count

Tibet as part of China.

So I guess

I could be considered a woman.

It just depends on

What side of the border you’re on.

Tibet.

Mom’s going to Tibet.

Abandoning my younger sister in Korea

In order to ‘find herself’.

Never in her life

Has my sister been

Left behind in a foreign country before.

I’m pretty sure she’ll get used to it.

We all had to.

I just hope my sister doesn’t

Fall off a cliff over there.

Like I almost did.

Cliff hanger.

I hope this poem doesn’t end in-

Chocolate Covered by a Steel Wrapper

“You know, I think I’m like chocolate with the filling inside,” my mother stated as she stopped at the red light and put on her signal. My eyebrows raised up a notch.

            “What do you mean?”

            “I’m hard on the outside, but soft on the inside.” I laughed a little at the thought.

            No mom, you’re like steel. You’re tough through and through.

            “It’s true!” My mother pouted, as she turned left on green. I just shook my head.

            It was Friday, the twenty fifth of May and my older sister, Christine, came back home from college the other day. It was after school, and I was fervently writing the typical lines people would use for a birthday card for my friend’s party that I was going to attend.

I was sitting in the dining room that was across from the stairs and next to the kitchen. I heard plates clinking and the water running, so I knew my mother was washing the dishes because no one else in the house would. I heard the ceiling creak slightly, so I knew my sister was out of bed because her room was right above of me. The house was silent, as tranquil as a battlefield before a war starts. While I was writing ‘Happy Birthday Priscilla’, my older sister came downstairs in her worn-out cozy-looking pajamas. She mumbled a greeting to me before she entered the kitchen. My sister and my mother started to talk each other, but the conversation was mostly muffled. In the midst of their discussion, my older asked my mother for a favor.

“Mom since Mike is coming over, can his roommate come with him and stay over?” As soon as the words rolled off her tongue, the kitchen turned into a scream fest. This was the fourth argument they’ve had since my sister came back home the other day. I was sick and tired of their fighting, so I just blocked my ears from their screeching noises with my hands.

I looked at the time on my cell-phone and stared at the clock with wide eyes. I only had five minutes before the party started.

            “Mom, we have to go! We have to leave right now!” I yelled loudly. I ran to the front door. The door swooshed as I opened it, and the lock from the door made a loud click sound when I closed it. I waited outside of the door for a couple of seconds. I got impatient, so I opened the door again.

            “Why are you yelling at me? I just asked you to…” I shut the door. I counted ten seconds, and then opened the door.

            “I don’t know this guy! How could you have asked me to…?” Click… Swoosh.

            “I didn’t expect you to say yes, I just wanted you to…” Click… Swoosh.

            “I can’t talk about this right now. I have to drop off Joyce to the party. We’ll talk later when I get back.” My mother coolly slid past me and walked towards her silver Acura car. I glanced at my older sister and noticed that she was a total wreck. Her face was covered with red blotches, tears were running, and snot was dripping down. She shot me a look before stomping up the stairs to her room.

            During the car ride, my mother and I did not utter one word to each other. I thought that this was best because at that moment my mother was a ticking time bomb. If I were to say anything she would implode all of her angers and frustrations out on me. The only time I opened my mouth was when we arrived to thank her for the ride.

            At the party, I had fun, but I was distracted. Even when I talked about last year’s social studies class to my friends, when I complimented Brittany’s mermaid-like hair color, when I watched Meet the Fockers with my friends, when we decided that Meet the Fockers was too inappropriate and watched a different movie, or when we went to the park and showed off our exquisite cartwheel techniques, I was still thinking about my sister and my mother.

            Why must they argue? Why can’t they just get along? Don’t they realize they affect the whole house when they argue? Why must mom always be this unbendable steel?

            Before I realized, the clock struck 5 o’clock. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to have to go through listening to their endless bickering. I was much happier at my friend’s house, surrounded with people who laughed and smiled at me. Nevertheless, my mother pulled up to the curb and honked her horn. I coated my face with smiles, so that mother wouldn’t see me with an unhappy expression. I said my goodbyes to my friends, got into the car, and closed the door.

            The car ride was silent. Again. When we pulled up to the driveway of my house, I looked at my mom and I felt compelled to complain about what was going on.

            “Mom, why are you arguing with Christine? Did you have to yell? Didn’t you see that she was hurt? She was crying!” Mom whipped her head towards me angrily. Her fiery hair bounced behind her; the curls in her hair bobbed angrily.

            “And you don’t think that I get hurt too when I argue with one of you?” I was stunned. I couldn’t even speak; the only thing I did was have my thoughts running around my head.

No, I always thought that all you felt was anger.

“As a mommy, don’t you think that I want to cry too when one of my daughters cry?”

But you never show any of your tears. You only show your steel-like scolding face. I took a breath.

“Still, I think you should apologize to her, mom.”

“Why must I apologize. Why is it always me being the bad one? Why is it always my fault?” My mother collapsed into sobs. Her hands plastered onto her face and her shoulders were quaking. Her unsteady breaths sounded wheezy and tired.

Did my mother always look this fragile? Was she always this delicate, sensitive woman? Why didn’t I ever realize that behind her scolding face was a heartbroken one?

My chest tightened, my hands shook, my eyebrows scrunched together, and my throat felt closed up. Worst of all, my heart hurt. I felt and understood the intensity of my mother’s pain and it hurt me so much to see her feel this way.

 I stared as she furiously wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. She glimpsed at me and smirked.

“Why are you crying?”

I quickly felt my cheeks and they were wet.

“It’s because you’re crying.” I dabbed my tears with my sleeve. My mom smiled, and then, that smile turned into a laugh. She helped me mop up my tears. Before we left the car, she hugged me and whispered ‘Thank you’ into my ear.

Wishing well part 1

“We don’t want to sleep! We don’t want to sleep!” The children chanted as they bounced up and down on their beds sending dust and feathers flying all over the room. Their mother tried to lull them to bed with her soothing voice, but nothing seemed to be able to work on these feisty hyperactive children. The little devils started to scream even louder, “WE WON’T SLEEP! WE WON’T SLEEP!”

            “What is with all this ruckus?” The grandmother asked as she limped into the room. She set aside her cane onto the sofa and then straightened her back.

            “I’m so sorry, mother-in-law, to have bothered you. I’ll have these little monsters in bed soon, so you should try to get some rest.” The mother said ushering the grandmother out of the room.

            “Wait just one moment, dear. How about you hand over your little monsters to me? This old woman still knows all the old tricks to tranquilize fussy children you know.” The grandmother replied with a hint of amusement in her eyes.

            “Oh, well, be my guest.” The tired mother said as she stepped aside and slumped onto the couch.

            “So, you children don’t wish to sleep?”

            “NO! NO! NO!”

            “But you do know you have to, even though you don’t wish to.”

            “Well then, I’ll wish on a shooting star so that we never have to sleep.” The youngest child replied. His big eyes climbed up to meet his grandmother’s eyes and challenged her.

            “I don’t think you need a shooting star to make a wish come true. Why, you can use a four leaf clover that you hunted for in the garden, or blow out birthday candles on top of a cake, or perhaps…” The grandmother said with a smile. “Perhaps a wishing well will do the trick.”

Testimony Poem

I was in the middle of writing my testimony when this came to mind...

In order to form a relationship with someone you must give them your heart.

Not the whole thing, of course, but only one part.

Once they take your heart they do whatever they see fit.

They might trample, tear, smash, or rip it.

They might drop it and abandon you leaving you feel dismayed.

However, God calls us to not be afraid.

Once you give your heart away you can never put it back.

But that is why God gave you lots so that it’s something you’ll never lack.

On the other hand you’d feel frightened.

Because you don’t want darkness you only want what’s brightened.

In the darkness you are scared because you feel alone.

Trapped in sin that you can never atone.

Though time and time again God shows something amazing.

We spectate that in the darkness there is a light that is blazing.

MF first book: chapter 2

Violet

            “Grandfather! Where are you?” Violet yelled out, while twisting the plain gold ring on her finger. She walked out of her bedroom and went into her purple and pink interior decorated living room. She pushed away the see through veils and saw that the couches were empty.

 “Grandpa? Come on stop playing with me!” Violet searched every single corner of their lamp, but her Grandfather was nowhere to be found.

            “Okay then. You leave me no choice, but to use my magic!” Violet exclaimed. She looked at her ring, but quickly thought it was better to leave it on. She thought of a wish, her purest wish. She then twirled her fingers into the right position. A rolled up paper shot out towards her. Violet unrolled it and her grandfather’s voice echoed out.

            “Dear Violet, excellent job using your powers! I put an enchantment on this paper, and I being one of the leaders, it was very strong magic. To be able to actually receive this letter takes a master of our kind to have centuries of practice. Violet, you have a special and powerful gift; however, do not take it lightly as your parents did. You know what happened, and I don’t wish that you would end up that way. I expect another important letter for you due soon, so be alert. Oh and you’re probably wondering where I am right now. I am going on an adventure and regrettably that is all I can inform you. Be a good girl while I’m gone and don’t take off your ring too often. Tata for now.

P.S. I almost forgot! I put another enchantment on this paper. As soon as you’re finished reading, a seal will but onto your powers. You will be able to use your powers, but now there is a limit. If you go beyond your limit your powers will go away for a short time and there is another side effect that will happen to you… But, I’m not sure what it is. It’s different for every person. I’m the only person who could release you from this magic, so don’t bother trying to take it off, you’ll only exhaust yourself. You will see why I did it in the near future. Well bye!”

            “What?!” Violet exclaimed. The letter disappeared and so did Violet’s energy. Her legs started to wobble. She tried to sit down, but her legs gave in and Violet sank to the floor.

            “Damn it grandfather!” Violet cursed while she started standing up. Her legs trembled trying to hold her weight. Violet tried using her powers. She thought of a wish… a pure wish. She started to conjure up her powers and distribute it throughout her body in order to heal herself, but instead she felt even more exhausted until she felt her magic drain from her. Grimacing, she stopped abruptly and fell onto the floor again with a loud thud.

            “When you come home, I’m going to kill you grandfather!” Violet cussed. She headed towards her couch with great effort. Laying and panting on the couch, she took her ring off. Instantly, her strength returned. Once she felt fully restored she put the ring back on.

            “Thank the leaders that I have this ring.” She sighed and kissed her ring. She lay down on the couch and noticed that she already did all of the things her grandfather warned her not to do.

            “Oh well. What now?” Violet wondered to herself. “Oh yeah. Grandfather said that a letter was coming for me. What did he mean by that?” As soon as she finished that sentence a second letter appeared on her lap. Unsurprised, Violet opened the letter.

            “Congratulations!” Violet read aloud. “You have been accepted to the United Force Academy. We evaluated your magic and according to our systems you have more than exceeded our expectations. You will enter the school as a special. We will see you when the school year begins and hope that you enjoy the rest of your summer.” Violet put down the letter and stared at the ceiling of her lamp. She smirked grimly.

            “Hmm, a Special... This should be quite an interesting year.”