Author Archives: theatala

Zayna Diaz is a graduating PPCHS senior. She really enjoys making art, especially painting, drawing, and sewing. She’s also a huge soccer fan and loves watching films and tv shows.

“If I was a Blue Bird” is a watercolor piece made by Isabella Angel. Isabella is a graduating senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. She created this piece without sketching anything out; the brush was in control of the final product.

As I studied myself in the mirror, nothing looked as it should. The lacy sleeves were too tight, scrunching up around my armpits, while the torso was too big and sagged around my breasts. I lifted the veil over my face, yet the mesh was too fine and I could hardly see my own reflection.Continue reading “Chained Down”

A sonnet is a fourteen line poem usually written in iambic pentameter and following a particular rhyme scheme. This sonnet follows the rhyme scheme of an English sonnet. Monday morning sun beats down like a bat It greets the cool air rolling off Rock Run It was here my sunflower faced wife sat We spatContinue reading “Bucklebone Bob’s Dead Wife”

Sophia Lopez is finishing her sophomore year at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. Hunting, which won 2nd place in the 4th annual Pembroke Pines student art competition and was on display at the ArtFest, was created using colored pencil.

An ekphrastic poem is inspired by a work of art. “Washing Away My Grief with the Sea” was inspired by Georges Seurat’s Port En Bessin The Semaphor and Cliffs. Waves wash over me, ignoring the exhaustion That threatens to overtake me. Engulf me like the ships, that smack their lips, waiting to swallow its nextContinue reading “Washing Away My Grief with the Sea”

I feel like a cup of old paint water.I’m not even sure what that means. It’s the same way that I feel likean old rubber bandon my bedroom floor.I meant to pick it up months ago, but it never budged. I say that I’ll pick it uptomorrow,and tomorrow,and tomorrow,and tomorrow – Until a whole summerContinue reading “It Took Me Longer to Title Poem Than It Did to Write It”

After what had felt like forever, we finally pulled up to the parking lot. I got out and walked to the entrance, where a large red and white sign hung above. The strong smell of wood hit me as I opened the double glass doors. I heard the clashing sounds of off-beat drums, untuned guitarsContinue reading “Blue Beauty”

A Shrinklit poem uses rhyming lines of poetry to summarize a novel’s main plot, conflicts, and themes. This poem is based on War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. Shrink, a pane of common worldThat lives and breathes in smoke.An unknown pod, a race unfurledYet ne’er a word was spoke. Turn and toil, walk andContinue reading “Righteous Earth”

A villanelle is a French verse form in nineteen lines that follows a specific pattern of two rhymes and an alternating refrain. I stay searching for the girl in the red dress With wounded beauty – wings clipped – she flew Oh, why could I not see the cause of her distress? On her softContinue reading “The Girl in the Red Dress”