Something worth chasing, 

You have one beautiful life to live,

Make it the most you can give

It is memories formed in a scrapbook

Love can sometimes be difficult 

But through it all, it can lead to a beautiful result

Love is about bond and understandment between one another

The bond and understandment with soon become larger and larger

Love has no limitation 

Nor shouldn’t have no expectations.

Love should be free and being able to express yourself fully with another

And being able to go through obstacles in life and being able to recover.

Love is forever growing 

And will keep on forever glowing.

People asleep sound in their beds,

Though most appear in peace,

For some the terrors of night increase,

The shadows seem lurk in the corners,

Their bodies seem to be damp and warmer,

The whispers in the walls get louder,

As the clock ticks by the hour,

Fear grows larger by the second,

While the safety underneath the blankets lessen,

Then eyes close as they give in,

And when they open, it’s daytime again.

-Sanai Wallace

The old you stays in a constant loop trying to climb

She can’t catch up to you since you’re moving so fast

That you leave her in the past

You wonder if life would be easier if you could just go back

But then you realize that your life has so much more left to unpack

But for that little girl she’s living the happiest she can be with imaginations of wanting to grow old 

While you’re hoping for her to never let go

There’s nothing else you can do but just keep on going

Waiting for the day when everything stops glowing

I wish I could go back to when I was three.  

When there was no pain or hurt or responsibilities, 

for then, in my mind, there were no hostilities.

Oh! The things I could have prevented. 

But I can’t go back, so now my fate is cemented.

Every now and then, the thought of going back crosses my mind,

for life before then had not yet been unkind 

Sometimes I wonder if others think of going back,

to a time where the innocence was still there, and life had not yet made its attack...

As time passes it grows bigger,

I scream but there is no sound,

There is no one around,

I try to open my eyes,

But instead I see my demise,

I run but where to run,

There is no sun,

The dark figure caught up to me,

Now there is no more of me to see

I open it only at night because for hours I’m hooked.

When my eyes run across the pages left to right

I feel like I’m away from everyone's sight

Inside the book’s world. Looking around I see the room 

The main character described in such detail.

Touching everything in the room like its brail.

Sitting to the side as the males and females are conversing.

Wait what was that noise?

I look up to find myself back in my own room sitting down in my bed.

If only I was really there and it wasn’t just in my head. 

This doesn’t appear to be love

You can try to outrun it

But what’s happened can’t be undone

This feels like a scary fantasy

And in actuality

You’ve always known that I’ve loved you

Because of everything that we’ve been through

But what can I do?

I don’t have any clue

I hid from my childhood in order to become and adult faster

Or so i thought once i seen it was a disaster

 All these utilities 

Just more responsibilities 

Oh now i know wanting to grow up was a mistake 

I wish it was just a nightmare something I can awake from

 All i can do is live life without any complaints
Live life with no restraints. 

-Jacqueline Ornelas

I’m not sure why but it helps being enlightened

Well maybe it's because of all the responsibilities that people get when they grow old

I think about all of the times that I may unfold

I could start to get ruthless or I could start to get fragile 

There’s no way in knowing when I may begin to rattle 

Growing older is alarming, I remember when I was younger all I ever was, was excited

Now I’m not sure how I feel, but I know I’m not delighted  

Right now I’m happy, but what will happen if I become like mold
People start to rot and people start to get uncontrolled 

I don't want to be this way when I get older, but there's no telling when I may need to battle 

Growing older is tough which means there may be times when I could get into a grapple

-Alomi B.

Like a sandcastle falling under its rumble

And Watch as the old ones take shelter

To pray that the winter’s wrath will skelter

The eyes in the moonlit sky

Moving ever-so-slightly as the days passes by

But what is time?

And why do people talk about it when the hand passes nine

Watch the children grow up while singing

And watch them forget about being young and wishing

What is it that they fear

It's only life taking its gears

But her name was Rose 

Rose lived in a world of illusions 

Where she was sought to have delusions 

Because she knew not the characters name but their story 

She knew not the characters mistakes but their glory

Therefore she fell in loving with reading 

She fell in love with false realities that taught her bonding

It was her escape from “quiet girl” 

And her beginning to twirl 

Somewhere along these lines

Pages in her real life where breezed away, stuck in vines 

But it was too late to save those pages

Because everyday for ages 

She wished for what she’d read, be actuality 

That was then switched into reality 
-Alexandra Hernandez

I am feeling unstoppable.

I can see the whole world

from this tree,

But sadly it is time to flee.

Till next time I come to dream 

About my amazing scheme. 

But now i don’t want that at all

I’m at adulthood’s door

And i don’t know who I want to be anymore

Things were so much simpler when i couldn’t see over the countertop

Now i overthink about what is to come nonstop

I don’t remember where it went wrong

Perhaps when i threw out my sneakers for high heels that once made me feel strong

Now I'm stuck looking down at her

Hoping she will never come to understand what i now discover

-katherine machado

Once my gentle hands turn the page, my thoughts unfold. 

I spend my time in agony, eager to discover

As I simply escape to a new world then another;

The closer I am to the end of the book

The further I feel understood,

Delightful images fill my head and alleviate all distress

This is the only thing that keeps me from feeling like a mess.
How I wish the way I perceive a book was my reality

I suppose that is feeling is just a commonality.

Eventually… my contentedness comes to a finish

No matter how much I loath it, the pages of a book diminish.
-Valerie Mondragon

growing up would be the easiest but it's actually the toughest

As everything is no longer a game

having actual responsibilities

nothing feels the same

oh how i wish i was kid again

so i could be in the same mentality of a child's brain

although as growing up may seem hard it's only begun

as there is much to look forward at like having fun

-genesis torres

As I open the book and start to scan,

I’m not quite sure I understand.

As I begin to read,

My mind begins to think. 

I’m lost in my thoughts,
As I read across.
I didn’t realize I was lost,

until I snapped out of my thoughts.

I read but I don’t understand, 

I can’t comprehend. 

taking away my aches.

I got older,
my life has turned around 

my mom would be so proud

To see me now.
All my mistakes have gone away.

Now i have to say,

don’t give up the mistakes will go away
don't let yourself go astray.

till this day I still make mistakes

still giving me aches.
Everything is better now,

I don’t know how

Don’t give up and you will see 

It all gets better eventually.  

- Aldonn D.

To keep out the nighttime terrors that lurk on your bedroom floor. 

Theirs so many ways to keep them at bay,

Leaving no reason for them not to stay away. 

They're docile in the light with no need to take warning. 

But in the dark, they get hungry and start exploring. 

So clutch your sheets keep on a light.

One bright enough to keep the demons resided in the darkness of night.
- Glen Belisle

It is how we lead the way to the end of earth,
How it is crazy that They don't see that rap is harmless,
Regardless the fact that the weapon doesn't kill its the holder,
Such a crook thing to see this over looked,
I'm so shook by this fact and I just want to scream,
I want this to be a dream,
Please let me wake up to a upgraded day,
In this life all I see is hatred and suffering,
The only way to prosper is to show your true feelings and with this way we will see an over coming.

-Hayden Ulloa

I enter my dream.

Filled with all of my imagination,

It almost feels like a good, long vacation.

But at the same time it turns into a nightmare,

A nightmare I want to be aware,

Of all the negativity it can give me,

Still chasing me down like there's no end of the street.
Every night I fear the most of never waking-up,
I guess that’s why I’m always trying to be so pumped-up.
Praying every night that I’ll still be able to breathe,

That is my fear of an endless dream.
-Xochytl Reyes

I will use those last seconds for an "I love you, goodbye"

Though I can't always blame you for my grief
It's not so easy to feel relieved
I miss you everyday of my life
Continuously wishing I got a proper goodbye
Though I will come across you one day
Greeting you with all my thoughts I couldn't say
Finally at home, reunited with my missing piece
Oh how wonderful will that be

-Ariana Baez

I watched as the people I once knew became colder.

I grew up to recognize that this world I called home was now a nightmare.

Came to be that I wasn’t prepared.

Time flies by

All I could do is sigh

I was in elementary school when I suddenly closed my eyes.

I opened them and there I am in high school, what a surprise

But I know I’ll be alright because I’ll trust the one and only

To lend me a hand when I’m feeling lonely.

- Lesley Galindo

Our hair starts to change 

Out body grows weaker 

Our vision gets worse

We know see the word differently 

As now our kids have kids and those kids have kids

Our world is now modernized
and we are now called "Old School" 

by the day we grow wiser 

and by the year we grow older

-Vanessa Alvarez

It roars like the pulling of the tide against a winter sea 

As I try to look back and remember that night 

I gravitate towards the endless feeling that made you the love of my life 

Your thumb stroked against my cold, cold shoulder 

And you told me things, things you've never told her 

I'll always be yours, is it true, what you said? 

As we stand there in the evening, remembering the dead 

In that long embrace, I had come to console your pain

But all you did was laugh as if I was the one who had lost what I'd so easily gained

Thank you for loving me, now, then, and forever 

That long embrace you gave only made my smiles better.
- Elannah Geronimo

I watched as she threw out your stuff

Weeks later, time ticked by

And I still haven't gotten the chance to say hi

I watched as tears rolled down her face

As I took her into my embrace

Years later I come to find out 

Exactly what this was all about

And even then, not once I hear 

The words “I’m sorry my dear”
-Belzebeth R

Couldn’t move, only felt the cold concrete

Darkness flooded my surroundings, still stuck in place

Fresh breeze, I take my first step and everything is lost in space

I look around puzzled to see a darker darkness

Reached for warmth only to feel tarnish

Staying away, avoiding to be deceived

My mind lead me away, told me what I wanted to believe
-Amani Campbell