Aleah Vega By nature, most plants are hermaphroditic. Meaning, the flowers they produce may contain both female and male sex organs. A magnolia flower for example, grows with anthers, a stamen, and a pistil and, within that, a style, stigma, and ovaries (A stamen and anthers being male organs and the pistil and so forth… Read More Hermaphrodite

Isabelle Chin My mother used to tell me that when I was still in her womb, we shared one heart. Naturally, I loved the idea, beaming as I imagined our single heartbeat furiously pulsing through chambers of her swollen body, making blood vessels and nerves shake with thunder, rumbling echoes on the verge of bursting… Read More Strawberry Heart

Blake Croft I I have seen my dad cry only once. He cried at a funeral that didn’t matter to me, didn’t matter to him. A funeral that didn’t matter.   II The funeral didn’t matter to me. My great-grandmother, my dad’s grandmother, had passed in her sleep. I say she passed because she did… Read More Cry For Me

Alijah Hill There are lovely little lilies lined around the pond. Peaceful, I sit and eat my lunch, sunken into the bench. The sun shines so softly on my skin, perhaps I hear Robin’s song? Do you see that over there? There! Across the water, there! Tiny little children playing in a sandbox, the picture… Read More Lunch

Yash Markendey I sat there, passport in hand, hopes in another. This wasn’t my first voyage overseas, just the first alone.   “You’re going places, I know it.”   To the synchrony of the seatbelt signs, my eyes darted towards the world outside my window, avoiding the masked stares around me, clouding a homely smile… Read More Midwestern Blues

Gus Moody Mom died in a car accident on the way to pick me up from my last day of ninth grade. Or pick us up, really. I was with Tessa that day, my best friend since preschool. Mom was supposed to sign us out of school at noon so she could take us to… Read More No One Likes to Grieve

Blake Croft November 11th, 2003 Mr. Marconen told me I should start journaling, that it might make me feel better, so here I am. I’ll introduce myself now, if that’s alright. If there’s anyone reading this. My name is Finn, I’m 15 years old, and I’m a hired hand at the Brookfield Zoo. More of… Read More Cold Snacks on a Freezing Cold Day in Brookfield, Illinois