By Jordan Hales When we’re apart, I keep you in my heart.  Haunting feelings of maroon, I hope to see you soon.  Our moments are loquacious, and I am no longer anxious.  I will welcome the December chill, and my happiness you will fulfill.  I long for you when you’re away, when you return, please tell me you’ll stay.  And stay. 

Dave Onofrychuk Twenty-some years ago, late at night on a secondary highway in the prairie, on my way to lawn-mowing gig at a Scout camp two hours north of home, a man flagged me down beside his car on the shoulder.  Could he get a ride? Pitch dark, no moon. His face, half shadow in the glow of my headlights. Me, nineteen years old.  “Sure,” I said. I dropped him off in town, a few miles up the road. Sometimes I look back on that and wonder how much there is to be afraid of. Sometimes I shake my head at myself and shudder. 

By Marty Grumblis Cicadas aren’t something you get to experience in Alaska. I spent many years being aware of their existence, but only recently did I travel to a state with large broods. The insects spend seven years underground, a private and dark existence. Then, they uproot their entire way of being. Growing tired of their miserable shells, they crawl from the dirt, they molt, and they scream. A cicada doesn’t live long after it emerges from the ground, only a few weeks to put on the show of a lifetime. Like a true artist, they refuse to let their misery go unheard. 

Marty Grumblis It takes around 4,000 newtons of force to break the human femur, or roughly 6,000 pounds of compressive pressure. The comeback is brutal, full recovery taking upwards of a year in some cases. A year wasted in the hospital for us in the 21st century, but sometimes I think about our late ancestors, skeletons with healed femurs. Their families and communities cared for them, hunted for them, made sure they were safe without any of our modern luxuries. The world has always been cruel and punishing, but humans have found a way to love each other enough to walk again.  

By Brian Anderson Golden crown with ruby accent  Beautiful and elegant   Six days later  Sodden leaves beneath my toes  Birds descend   And all is gone. 

By Carrie Harris The glint on the water is  long   wobbly   inconsistent.   Sends off sparks   rays of light  is beautiful.  Just like me.  In the periphery  the brightest and   loudest.  Just like me.  Ripples cross it, toss it.  Just like me. 

By Jasmine Perea We call her Mother Nature   and we claim that we’re trying to save her.   But,   We build concrete jungles on top of her jungles.    Society doesn’t run off of Trees and streams  or see the beauty in the bees.   Society runs off of greed,  and continues to hand it down to their seeds.  

By Connor Nielsen Coffee for me,  Coffee for you,   Without dear Coffee,  Our college careers would be through! 

Anonymous Run while you can  for he hungers for more  he awaits you  At your front door?  Under your floorboards?  His knowledge knows no bounds  He will find you  Even if you skip town  Run while you can  Because everyone fears the IRS man 

Anonymous The lovely glow is what you show  for I know it is pain that stains you.  I know it is troubling times that have changed you.  You are to me what water is to a tree  And I shall sing my love for you from sea to sea.  A tune that will never fail me,  The love that has never changed me.  I will see you soon  My beautiful little moon.