Author Archives: theatala

I haven’t been fine since that day in nineteen sixty nine the day that cursed lotto ripped me from my momma “You’re fighting commies,” the white man says. “That’s God’s plan!” But what harm have the commies ever caused this black man? Not pain. Not humiliation. Not trauma. Not segregation, degradation, nor sorrow. Unlike theContinue reading “Monologues Overheard Inside the V.A.’s Office”

In “The Legend,” Garrett Hongo intertwines the story of the death of Jay Kashiwamura with the perspective of an onlooker to highlight the overarching message of the importance of compassion and empathy. By incorporating allegory, allusions, suggestive diction, and sharp contrasts in tone and imagery into the poem, Hongo conveys a theme of alienation andContinue reading ““The Legend”: Dehumanization and Indifference”

Lady Zuriel Ayebah is a creative writing student who is finishing up her junior year at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. “Sweet Dreams to my Nightmares” won first place in the Poem for Two Voices category of the 2022-23 Broward County Literary Fair.

Natalia Montgomery, one of our editors of this year’s issue of the atala, is a graduating senior and Creative Writing 4 student who writes fiction and poetry. “Mercury Upon Anxious Wings” earned first place in the Ekphrastic Poem category at the 2023 Broward County Literary Fair, as did her sestina, “The Huntsman,” also featured inContinue reading “Mercury Upon Anxious Wings”

Unzip your skin and let me in Surely you must be tired  always wrapped in its weight I want to see every crack and scratch and gap within your flesh and bones and blood I already know where to find far more of them than you’d think So unzip your skin to someone who’s actuallyContinue reading “Bare”

An epistolary work is a story told through letters or other documents. Ahana Thakur is a second year creative writing student and graduating senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. N-INFO was created digitally, a continuation of her short story written about a girl who ran away from home and who struggles with her feelings.

Abby Santos is finishing her junior year at Pembroke Pines Charter High School. Although she has always taken traditional art classes, for the past two years she’s been into graphic design and loves it! Abby is currently taking Digital Design and is interested in pursuing a career in the digital world of communications, specifically inContinue reading “Fall Editorial”

A Sestina is a French form consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The final words of each line repeat in a different but predetermined sequence in each stanza. Hunter, forged from pools of hellfire, carrying your quiver.Wood and grass and water land and fall at your feetAs you pass through the valley.Continue reading “The Huntsman”

My mother was downstairs. It wasn’t my mother. I knew it wasn’t my mother because I heard no door open, no locks click, no windows rattle as they always did when my mother slammed the door a little too hard. But I heard her footsteps on the linoleum floor, on the crevices that were cakedContinue reading “The Game”

Andria Subhit loves literature and art, and although she is experienced with various mediums, she primarily creates digital art. This piece, “Imago,” is a visualization of metamorphosis and change. Another piece of Andria’s digital art is featured on the cover of this issue of the atala, as well as within our Spring 2022 issue.