Category Archives: Uncategorized

Rebecca Castillo is an AP Drawing student finishing her junior year at PPCHS. Her favorite medium to use is graphite. She has always enjoyed drawing and also creates digital art such as “Two-faced,” the piece selected as cover art for the Spring 2022 Issue of the atala.

The first morning I awoke under your roof, it was March, and I ventured into your garden for a stroll over installed stepping stone paths, towards cold, stony-faced statues to tend to flower beds in full splendor reclining like nudes in the sun while you, rigid, clothed, sat between busts of dead men over aContinue reading “Pushing Up Lilies”

talk to me in the tone that only i use tell me i’m like the penny in your change and that i’m worthless unless i change talk to me in that tone do it just like how i say i’m nothing more than the lumpy stone that keeps cracking in the driveway say it theContinue reading “say it like i do”

Leaf-like thoughts  flutter and fall as I forget  But to the soil they go  Enriching the ground  From which new trees, and leaves, will grow. Alan Mathew is a high school senior at PPCHS and an aspiring writer. Plagued with cluelessness and clarity in unequal measure, Alan continues his effort to find the shapes of important ideas throughContinue reading “Leaf-Like Thoughts”

Let my body run And my mind escape Travel to space Let it dance and shower in the sun’s harsh rays Let it be I’m pulled down to sit in a desk By a big tree With crowded branches that are so close to me No it won’t set me free  Helen Godoy is aContinue reading “Itching”

“Goodnight, kiddo,” my dad said. Turning over, he kicked the tent and groaned. But it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep. “Goodnight,” I mumbled. He yanked the blanket from me, revealing the true strength of the wind that night. Staring at the ceiling of the tent I felt uneasy. The cold currents rustledContinue reading “Her Call”

An ekphrastic poem is inspired by a work of art. “Woven Thoughts” is inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s 1946 painting, The Seamstress. https://oac.ohio.gov/Riffe-Gallery/Past-Exhibitions/Masterworks/lc/18103/lcv/s/jacob-lawrence-seamstress-1946 I must not let hate | get in the way of my own dream. Sewing clothes | has been my dream. This machine will | make me live my dream. This machine willContinue reading “Woven Thoughts”

*An ode is a lyric poem that addresses and celebrates something or someone. The doors leading to classrooms Short halls going nowhere but to school… On my way back from the bathroom, I glance into the rooms—Some with windows, most without— And see them full of zombies. Ninth graders learning algebra, Tenth precalculus, Eleventh APContinue reading “Ode to Seniority”

I could fly without them weighing me down Painting lands I’d never dreamed I danced alone in the rushing rivers How I loved the new reflection I saw But I missed the laughs and company so I returned to what once was. Now people can see my dancing and I know I need to stopContinue reading “Contorted Puzzle Piece”

*A villanelle is a French verse form in nineteen lines that follows a specific pattern of two rhymes and an alternating refrain. School is five feet from where I rest One must have willpower to stay attentive Don’t even attempt to get nicely dressed Cameras to the ceiling, unable to see our chest Our appearanceContinue reading “Online School”