The Panther Prints

Freedom at a Cost With gallant demeanors and flags raised With want of peace, but death standing just at bay With conflict arisen in the streets Tear-heavy eyes begin to leak For war is something that is spoken of As if it is something that us humans love As if it is something that we just do As if it is something we want to Have in our society Have over us like a black cloud Hanging over our heads Making a dark shroud But there are men and women who understand That war is not so plain and bland War means death Death for you Death for your family Death for your enemies For your friends, too Too late, though, The flags have been raised The guns have been brandished And for a moment, you just gaze For a moment, your opponents you study, Appraise For a moment, that lasts a millennia You muster your strength, Your love Your hate Love for the ideals you protect And for the hate of black slaves And as around you the shouting starts The screaming begins Sc...

In celebration of national poetry month (April), here is a slam poem. Slam Poetry is a type of competition where people read their poems without props, costumes, or music. This is a poem about body shaming. And now, without further ado I present to you, "You won't Understand." You Won't Understand By Juliette             Why. Why do we show them that this is the way? We teach the wrong, when we should be teaching the right Why do we tell them to live like this? It's gotten to a point, that's not human anymore But the problem isn't in what we say, It's what we see and show. Somehow, someone, somewhere said that this is the ideal, And this is attractive, But it blew up and became radioactive. Why do we starve ourselves to the point of death? Skipping meals to get a decent photograph Why do we spend money to look like the ones that are ruining themselves? Earning just to be spending, doesn't make sense Why do we want to be the...

Attraction Two electrons - Tunnel through it all Refusing the law For something so small. Passion A candle slowly melting Going away Even as I just lit it It isn’t going to stay

I’m Sorry Words fall from my mouth in jest Like daggers with no purpose Points sharp, intentions dull Yet they find your heart Dead on I laugh, not seeing, not looking At the blood drowning your chest At your glassy eyes You choke, tugging at the dagger Wedged deep And I notice I blubber on my apologies pushing My heel into the wound Did I see you as they dropped from my red hands? Did I see you when I let them fall? I did not mean it My conscience is made of angel feathers I never meant to harm you, precious you My actions are blistering Pressed into coals to feed the fire My apologies do not heal your punctured heart or revive your glassy eyes Mountainous fields of misunderstanding Echo between us as I cradle Your heart And grasp your silent, cold hands for forgiveness.

Jicama Heist  Jicama, oh jicama wherefore art thou jicama? Deny thy orange and refuse thy tray And I swear, my love, they will serve you on every hot lunch day. And so, our story begins with the purge for jicama and the everlasting hunger for it. There we were, eating our drab cheddar bunnies and cardboard pizza slices, longing for the juicy, crunch of jicama, And then we saw it, the beautiful, pure white jicama. So we double knotted our shoelaces and got in our stances, ready to make the run. “GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!!!!” Running up to the hot lunch window, crouching so that the lunch lady can't see us, reaching our arms up into the bins, and snatching the beautiful vegetable, and making a run for it. Panting, we make it back to the classroom and revel in our newly won prize, Chanting our happy poem, “Jicama, oh jicama wherefore art thou jicama? Deny thy orange and refuse thy tray And I swear, my love, they will serve you on every hot lunch day!” Know it by heart, an...

A Still World By: Carly Deep ocean obis  Crashed jello waves stop to watch The flowers dance in the tall grass  On a simple day The kids went out to play Running barefoot on The dusty savanna Dancing on the farm A girl listens to the music  Made by the world The geese flapping in the sky The grass swayed The children's feet put the beat in motion As she listened she heard wild horses Running through the savanna All put together with the Bubbles of the fish Popping at the surface of the oceans Waves soared through the beat Crashing on the sand like a symbol It was a beautiful piece of art Being painted on a rainy day as The water dripped down the window In the forest the dew slipped off  The smallest of grass Making the pinging vibration of the world As it Circulated in the dancing girl's blood and She danced wildly through the world’s deepest peaks and tallest canyons.  Singing to the beat was the most ...

Ode To Salt By Zidane (For Juliette) During science class You dry up the room with salt The flow never ends

Ode to Jicama* Jicama, oh jicama I love you so, Jicama, oh jicama you're white like snow. Are you a vegetable or are you a root? I'm falling for you, I need a parachute. Jicama, oh jicama you are so juicy,  Jicama, oh jicama you make me loosey-goosey. How did you get to be so good? And yet, you are still so misunderstood. Jicama, oh jicama you are so healthy, Jicama, oh jicama you snuck up on me, you're stealthy. Jicama, oh jicama you give me vitamin C, Jicama, oh Jicama you hold the key.  Jicama, oh jicama you make a great meal, for jicama, oh jicama you are quite ideal. Juliette *pronounced hick-uh-muh

I tried to imagine human extinction: Tonight I weep for the world, not the Earth, but the world, a planet teeming with cultured civilizations, people who talk in elegant tongues and issue bright forms of self expression, the world: torn and run over by our greed for paper rectangles and electronic numbers. I weep for the world: with our civilizations now paved with cement and skyscrapers, for our libraries containing the berth of human intelligence, how we strived to understand our world, categorize it, normalize it, and how it would all be weathered by storm and sea when we’re gone, the Earth re shining its surface of humans, that moment when the last book gets teared in half by the wind and the last building smashed by nature’s fist, animals growing over urban landscapes as avenues turn into savannas with caged animals now freed. That when the last human took the last breath in the last human body and there would no one would be left to record it.  A Earth without humans, no lon...

I was perusing a peopleless pier when I saw the old man. He had grizzly hair, sunken eyes and a crooked nose, his grace humbled by his age. My feet chose on their own accord as I wandered over there. Silence gripped our shoulders like an overbearing parent. My breaths were as loud as the waves caressing the shore. “Hello,” I said and then words poured out of the crevices of our souls in a sweeping waterfall. Pleasantries were deleted like the dinosaurs and our words embraced like long lost friends. Our ages blown away with the fleeting tide. And our minds danced beneath the stars. He gifted me a necklace of pearls: wisdom, kindness and offered to wrap it around my heart. I traded him a cufflink of endless imagination to wear with his heart on his sleeve. We were trading our words in between the spaces of the world and we traded the world in between the spaces of our words. He told me that a single person could be wrapped up in a few words, that 10 or 11 letters could categorize someo...

Plop, plop, plop, Students eat lunch with umbrellas over their heads but it is not raining. Plop, plop, plop people duck under awnings, weary of airborne assailants. Plop, plop, plop You know when you’ve been hit, a thud, then the walk, everyone evades your step, Plop, plop, plop Settled by the white sink with a damp paper towel Cursing those smug, soaring birds, overhead.

The powder topped trees The icy mountains with sliding snow The frozen water trapping the little pebbles buried in the the sand

Petals as bright as the sun and seeds as dark as night The wind blows and they are dancing Stems sticking out like giraffe necks reaching to the sky Green leaves like wings trying to fly

Who made this day passing from the creator's hands to mine? A softhearted breeze dances raising my arms I am swept away gone with the wind and my summer memories turning my back to school I am soaring Free Finally

Because of the warming The El Nino has been forming Now the reservoirs won’t be dry With the rain from the sky