by Vera

Call Back Tomorrow - by Vera

There it is
spewed over the desk,
papers and sticky notes and adjectives,
all chasing each other
in parabolic paths
so she can
congeal it
mold it
soothe it
before deadline
into a novel.

And it's all about me.
Hah!

by Cara

Really Big Maybe Stinkbug - by Cara

I'm not touchin it!
Marco says that
Brianna says that
her brother got stank up by that bug,
and I don't know
what it's real name is
but it's for sure
a real stink bug.

If you touch it
it lifts up its butt and
sprays you
like Presto's gang did with the fire hydrant
last summer,
only stinkier,
Marco says,
stink like burning tires and dog puke.

Careful!
It's walking this way!

Sure is big.
And shiny black
like someone's been buffin him.
Like Sancho does on his duelly.

Kind of pretty.

Well,
I don't know if
it's for sure that bug
like Marco says,
but I'm not chancin it.

You touch it.

by Marvo

Blockhead - by Marvo

So her dad asked me to come over,
right?
and lay some block with him.

And I don't know anything about
laying concrete block,
but it's Lorna's dad,
right?

So I am saying yes
without thinking,
and we plan for today
and I borrow leather gloves
from DeVito
and I'm pretty on top of it all,
because I get to spend the day
around Lorna,
working and helping her dad.

But when I drive up,
he tells me
Lorna's upstate for the weekend
with her older sister.

And then he sends me home,
right?
to change into jeans
instead of
shorts.

I don't know what I'm doing.

And I've gotta do it
my whole
Saturday.