One Wrong Move That Changed It All 

By: Leeani Arroyo

 (Grade 11)

The field, the court, my world, my home.  

But now it feels like I’m all alone. 

There’s a battle in my mind struggling each day. 

Fighting to keep the darkness away. 

Mentally, it’s harder than the rest, 

To wonder if I’ll ever play at my best. 

Suddenly a moment, there’s a kindling light, 

An epiphany breaks through the night. 

They told me I would heal, but it’s all within time. 

But what they didn’t tell me is that my heart would be shattered, and I’d lose my mind. 

My knee is healing, but my mind is a mess. 

Am I enough? Just like the rest? 

I try to push, I try to strive, 

But this doubt inside, eats me alive. 

As I watch from the sidelines, a ghost in the crowd. 

Once she was a spirit so loud and proud. 

Then came the twist, the tear, the crack, the snap. 

The ACL, the meniscus torn. 

Leaving me broken, beaten, and worn. 

Two surgeries down, not one, but TWO. 

My body broken, my spirit TOO.  

Knee bound tight in ice and brace. 

Watching all the work, and time I put in, just go to waste. 

Blood, sweat, and tears ran down my face. 

Looking off at the field wishing I could trade my place. 

And although I fight with all I’ve got. 

There’s a part of me that still fears that I’ve lost. 

Three times a week, I drag myself there. 

Monday, Wednesday, Friday to face the stares. 

The difference in my knees, is one is pretty and smooth. 

While the other one is scarred and bruised. 

Cheer, Volleyball, Basketball too, 

Track, Flag Football— what I used to do. 

Although I yearn to be the person I was, I’m starting to accept that I am what I must. 

I hold my books, my grades in my hand, but the sports I played just slipped like sand.  

Keeping my Faith and Praying to God, that eventually this knee injury will all be gone. 

This pain is heavy, and this journey is long. 

But I know with you God, I WILL be strong. 

Yet somehow, I still rise just like the sun. 

Fighting through the darkness, with an ache so numb. 

And though my knee may never fly,  

I’ll find new wings and learn to try. 

Maybe someday, I’ll be healed, and I’ll fly. 

But for now, I’ll learn to live with just the WHY. 

ICE! Circa 2013

by: Brandon Christopher  (Grade 11)

A field trip to trace  
Before the dazzling façade of Marriott’s Gaylord exulted still  
Indoors, multitudes stand transfixed,  

Visages writ wintry in lustrous frost-gilt  
Their transient reflections mirrors to the seasonal beauty built  
Somewhere ‘pon a calendar, preserved in sapphiric stasis, 

Languishes a fine time  
Within this mind of mine, swirling  

With festive splendor and gelid oasis sublime  

But wherein a blizzardous aegis guards valiant ‘gainst time’s eternal flame, 
Do we not malt our own memories, fragile as snowflakes, 

Destined to vanish, all the same? 
Yet behold! Gloriously, it all unravels when a traveler’s stride winds   
Through the verdant harbinger’s boughs—deeper the scene entwines!  
For here prism palaces, hewn from glacial ice  
Rise like wildflowers through the drafty venue splice  
Sweet cinnamon clouds entice ’neath winter’s vice,  
And precious mementos do beguile as paradise  
‘Til stalls of many a kind’s mellifluous psalms embrace  
The soul with winter’s frosty lace  
Truly, a field trip to trace.