A Fox, Snow Leopard, and iPhone 13

A snow leopard, named Snowy, lived in the Himalayan mountains while a fox lived deep down in the grasslands. The fox, named Nick, traveled up to the mountains. Once at the top of the mountain he saw the snow leopard. The fox at first was surprised and nervous but after Snowy smiled and growled at Nick, they both burst out in a huge laugh. They quickly became friends and decided to travel to New York. They started their journey by packing huge nutritious lunches.

Snowy said good-bye to his family and Nick wrote his family a good-bye letter. They were almost to New York when in Pennsylvania, an angry mob of Earth ponies ambushed them. The ponies appeared extremely angry and Nick and Snowy had no idea why. A pony named Hitch chased them to New York.

In New York they arrived in Madison Square Garden and saw an ad about the brand new iPhone 13! They turned to each other and said, “What is that? We have to have it!” Right after saying that, a person walking by dropped their brand new iPhone 13, and Nick swiftly picked it up! Snowy and Nick ran so fast but did not know where to go.

After running for what felt like forever (though it was really only 10 minutes), the phone began buzzing, and before they knew what was happening they were surrounded by the person who dropped the phone and zookeepers! Nick and Snowy were sent to the Philadelphia Zoo because they got caught with the item when the owner tracked their phone. What a costly and sad lesson Nick and Snowy learned and they never hoped to see an iPhone again!


Nusayb McCain, age 8

Home Is

Home is–a place

Behind the stained glass doors

The entranceway with stacks of shoes

The rug caked with the dogs’ DNA

The kitchen where food crackles and pops like laughs at the dinner table

Crash! Smash! Dad breaks another personal weightlifting record

Sitting together as the movie opens

Snuggled under blankets by the warmth of the fire

The ominous creak as you walk up the stairs

The scars on my bedroom door from dogs’ scratches 

The bedroom that has kept me safe and harbored me for so many years

 

Home is–community

The smell of taco steam wafting from the corner restaurant 

My school since kindergarten, just blocks away 

Pillow polo with the same gym teacher for the past nine years

The talent show, being a safety patrol

The park where countless pickup basketball games have been played 

My closest friends’ houses like my second and third homes  

The UPenn college campus where my dog and I roam

The water oasis only three blocks away–summer joy swimming with friends  

 

Home is–a feeling

Love, comfort, support, courage, resilience

The love of licks and cuddles that my dogs give unconditionally 

The comfort of laying on my sister’s cloud pillow

The support from my mother when a school assessment nears

The courage my 75-pound dog gives me when she goes outside at night

The resilience my dad inspires when I get injured playing sports

 

Home is–activities

When the ping pong ball drops after the sweep of my racket hits it over the net 

The bounce of the basketball against the cold stone patio, then the swish

The pitter-patter of my feet in the hall as I practice fencing advances and retreats

My fingers slamming against the keyboard – I am alive, I am dead, I am respawned 

The beep of the oven, the cinnamon sugar aroma, snickerdoodles ready to devour


Drew Feldman is an 8th grader at Penn Alexander School. He lives in West Philadelphia with his sister, parents, and two dogs. Drew is a competitive fencer. In addition to writing poetry, he also enjoys filmmaking and editing, as well as coding. In the future, he hopes to become a software engineer or a lawyer. Next year Drew will be attending Friends Central School.

The Brand New Seat

For five years in Bangladesh, I attended a private, coed primary school. Every day when I came to class, I sat at the back with all the other girls, while the boys sat in the front row. Girls were given the old textbooks, whereas boys were given new textbooks. Also, when girls raised their hands to answer a question, most teachers would not call on them to respond.

The unfairness of this two-tiered system was lost on me at the time. As a girl in Bangladesh, I  understand this not as inequality, but as a conviction . It is an accepted practice to discriminate against girls  regarding many issues like education, health, and economic opportunities. I did not have the faintest idea  that girls were marginalized in many aspects of life in Bangladesh. We were made to believe that it is okay for girls to have fewer opportunities. I was taught that I can’t have the same freedom, resources, and opportunities as boys can have. As a result, a kind of inferiority complex took hold of me. 

A few years later, after arriving in the United States, I enrolled in school. When I walked into the classroom for the first time, I lowered my head, found a place in the back of the room, and sat on the floor. I shuffled timidly and looked toward Ms. James. She pursed her lips and frowned. I panicked. Did I do something wrong? Was I disrespectful? Did I obey the rule? My mind was racing.

“Umme, what are you doing?” she asked calmly. 

I didn’t respond. 

“Come sit at the front, next to Jack, okay?” She smiled and reached out her hand, pulling me forward and leading me to the first row to sit next to a boy, something I would never dream of doing back home. 

There, sitting at the front of the classroom, I felt an excited tingle in my stomach. This is where I wanted to be, this is where I belonged. At the front of the classroom, besides the boys and, of course, the girls. 

That brand new seat made me more confident and more motivated to face challenges and opportunities that in my homeland I was made to believe were meant for boys only.


Umme Orthy is a graduating senior at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber in Philadelphia, PA. She is headed to Haverford College this fall. She loves traveling, art, spontaneous weekend outings, and music.

Older and Older

Right when I turned one 

My life had just begun 

Started doing things I had never before done 

 

Started getting older and older 

As my birthdays became colder 

So much has happened, I can’t even lie 

But my heart gets stronger each day that goes by 

 

I’m getting older and older 

And everyday bolder 

I know I can handle 

Everything this world has put on my shoulders


Kayla Oliva is 12 years old. She enjoys softball, taking dance classes, hanging out with family and friends, and putting her thoughts to paper. She won the Young Authors Award and was published multiple times. Her motto is “always be the reason someone smiles today.”

Ceramic Body

now and then

i still find it hard to love 

the mess i was born as

and have become 

there i go again

 

but this clay figure has already been molded

went through the roaring fire of a kiln

my body is made, can’t be changed 

wish i could break it, then replace it 

 

fragile beauty crumbles to the touch

waiting for the set of hands 

that would keep me tough

my ceramic skin is no less than a bluff

call it an exhibition for the hollow one 

 

there’s glaze for the cracks 

gained not from old age 

below my eyes, in the bags 

i keep my sculptor heart there

pressed to change 

any flaw is fatal

the louvre (cap L?)will be my final home

or else i’ll tip myself over the shelf

 

and when i shatter

my skin would flake off

break off like puzzle pieces 

then i start scrambling 

to reach for the paint

reach for the clay

reach for the white cloth that hides the day

 

natural beauty, still a conduit of insecurity

no more tour, exhibition, gallery 

hide me away

till i stop scratching at my new skin

because it pains the artist to see

pieces of me lying on the floor

when i’ve spent so long

piecing me together


Evan Wang is a freshman at the Upper Merion Area High School. After picking up the pen two years ago, he’s never let it down. He currently resides in King of Prussia, PA with his parents who support his poetry despite not understanding a single word. Evan loves reading, listening to music, journaling, and diving into some watercolor and colored pencils from time to time. His biggest inspirations are Amanda Gorman, Savannah Brown, and his life. 

Back to Earth

Coming back from the cosmos is a curious thing

As one gets used to the song of silence the stars sing

But infinity gets infinitely maddening with time

And life itself seems to lose its prominent chime

So I began re-entry, for my own sake

By diving down to the surface, cloaked in fire

In the process nearly lighting my own funeral pyre

Never once considering what would be at stake

Until ground approached, then suddenly things mattered

Before I could think, I landed, leaving my everything tattered

Yet, my heart still beat, and a thought came to me whilst I was downed

Finally, thankfully, I’ve returned to the ground

Step by step I got my bearings, like a phoenix picking up each and every feather

As I realized that even the worst times were times that I could weather

Taking in my second wind, I began to soar

Piercing the skies, living more

Soon, the ringing of school bells brought me out of the air

But the grin on my face replaced any care

For I knew one thing in this blazing rebirth

After all this time,

I’ve come back to Earth.


Owen Perry is a 15 year old sophomore currently studying at Lansing High School. He has a deep passion for all sorts of creative writing, and intends on making a career out of it.

Foxtail Hollow

Eliana dashed through the forest and around the barren trees; thorns scratched at her legs. Her yellow rain boots splashed the puddles on the trail as she ran. Eliana put a hand on her dark, green hat as a big gust of wind whooshed past, nearly knocking her over. 

A storm was coming and, in Foxtail Hollow, a storm was never a good sign. Every time there was a storm something horrible happened. The last time there had been a thunderstorm, three children in the village had disappeared. 

But storm or not, she had to face it. This was just like in her dream: the storm… the forest… The Fox. She had to believe that it would all work out and she could face her fear and get her spell book back from The Fox. 

Eliana stopped for a moment and picked up a short and sturdy branch with a pointed end, and then continued until she reached the end of the path. She stood in a clearing in the woods waiting for it. She clutched the sharp stick to her chest. She was ready.

Eliana took a deep calming breath and swept her wild, auburn hair out of her face. She closed her eyes. She had to do this. She had to face her fear. There was no other way. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, staring out into the endless inky forest.

“Fox! she called. “I know you’re there, come out!” Her words echoed all around her.

The dead trees beside her cast a shadow like a spiderweb against the cool dirt.

“I said come out!” she shouted, her breath clouding in front of her eyes. 

Suddenly, she heard the crunching of leaves under foot. Eliana squinted against the dim light cast from the sinking sun. Then, she saw it. 

“Ahhhh!” Eliana shrieked, her voice cutting through the silent air.

“Shhh…” The creature soothed. 

Eliana took a sharp breath in.

“But… but…” she stammered, staggering backwards until she hit the ground.

 “You’re not The Fox!,” Eliana whispered, bewildered. Her chest tightened with panic.

The beast gave a cunning smile.

“I know.”

Then the beast let out a guttural cry into the twilight and a blanket of darkness covered the world.


Ada Busovsky is thirteen years old and loves to write novels and short stories. She has been writing since she was nine, and is currently working on a novel that she hopes to publish one day. She also enjoys baking and doing gymnastics. Foxtail Hollow is her first published piece of writing.

Good Night

“I’m…So…out…of…breath…” I struggle to say while being chased by loads of zombies. “My base is just around the corner…” Before I could even reach the corner, a zombie pops out and almost attacks me. “GAH!” I yelled, and I immediately punched it in its face and continued running, while still out of breath. I eventually made it home. “Ah, home sweet home!” I exclaimed in relief. I grab the wooden planks I got from some abandoned house across the street and nail them into my door, keeping the zombies out. 

I look through my backpack for the food I took in a worn-out store, and I end up getting a can of beans out. “That’s good enough. After all, I need to save most of my food.” I put the beans in a bowl, and then put them in the microwave. While waiting for it to warm up, I run upstairs to my room and jump on my bed. Under the covers was my laptop. I don’t really use it much, as it only helps me find more information about the infection…

“Let’s see…” I say as I search up more about the situation. “Hmp, it’s mainly news articles…Huh, what’s this?” I came across a website claiming it has a safe place for survivors and a large amount of food to share. I click the website’s link, and check it out. “Huh, it’s just a banner about where to find it, but should I really trust some sketchy people on the internet?” For all I know it could be some trap, and believe me, I’ve been in those types of situations before! “Well, there’s only one way to find out…”

I close my laptop and run downstairs with it. I force it in my backpack. My microwave starts beeping, indicating that my food has successfully been cooked. I open my microwave and rushfully eat my beans. In my mind I keep debating whether I should go or not. But no matter what it is, I’m confident in myself that I’d get right out of it. After all, it’s been months and look…I’m still alive, and well!

But then, everything in my room started turning black and melting. “WHA-WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” I yell. I sprint for the door but that turns into black goo also. I go for the windows but that’s blocked off too. Now, everywhere I look Is just black..There appears to be no escape. But then something speaks out to me. Someone’s voice…That I don’t recognize…

”It’s nice to finally meet one of the longest-living survivors of this infection..”

“Huh? Who’s there…?”

An entity slowly appears from thin air. It has a top hat that’s purple, with a purple suit. It also has a potato sack for a mask. It’s in some type of laying position, but floating! “Well Ethan, we’ve certainly met before.” It says. 

“Huh? What do you mean? What’s going on?” 

Amused, it continues talking. “Maybe your mind needs to be refreshed a little. Do you remember this…?” He points at the old man, who somehow predicted the infection.

“Yeah, I remember him. He’s the one who-” 

“Yes, that’s correct,” says the entity. 

“Wait, are you saying you’re the one who WAS the old man?”

“Precisely…now, why don’t we join forces, with your survival skills and my power, we can both rule the world! You can do anything as you wish, do we have a deal?” 

Let me get something straight, I WAS ABOUT to shake his hand, but his appearance was shocking enough. The way he…or it…talked, the way this seeming entity looked. I know as a fact that I couldn’t trust this scammer. “No!” I say, forcing my arm back before shaking his hand. “Why would I want to trust some sketchy person like you? For all I know, you could just be using me for some kind of stupid plan to take over the world!”

The entity puts his hand back on his shoulder, disappointed. “Ethan, my beloved boy, are you declining my offer?” I’m doing this for your own good!”  

I hesitate to say a word, but I knew declining his offer would probably prevent the world from ending. “I don’t know who you really are, or what card you’re playing, but it ends here!” I say. 

“Hmp, they are always so stubborn at first. Then when the world comes crashing down on them, they’d come straight back to me,” it says.  “Fine Ethan, stay out of my business. I tried offering you the chance of your lifetime, and this is how you treat me?” 

I sit there in silence for a moment. I guess avoiding the offer was the bright idea.

“Fine…SO BE IT!” He says before disappearing into thin air. 

“Phew, that was close..” I say. Just out of nowhere, smiling faces start to appear all around me, slowly coming closer.  “What’s…going on!?”

I close my eyes thinking it’ll do anything. When I do that, all I hear is screams…screams of agony. Once I open my eyes, I’m back here..Like nothing ever happened. “I’m glad that’s all over…But who would’ve ever known that there is some entity attempting to make things even worse than it is. “What if another survivor makes a deal with that guy?” Hopefully they’re smart enough NOT to accept his deal!”

I start to hear banging at the top of the stairs. “What in the world is going on up there?” Quickly, I ran upstairs only to find a load of zombies trying to bash down my windows! Scared and frightened, I didn’t know what to do! I grabbed all my valuables and equipment and stuffed it in my even larger backpack. I run downstairs and continue collecting my things. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” I say, struggling to put the rest of my things inside my backpack. I hear a large bang coming from upstairs, and more specifically, in MY room! I hear a bunch of footsteps and bangs. Zombies start running down my steps. But they all had smiles on their faces…in fact, they were the SAME smiles I saw in the entity’s realm. He’s come back for revenge! But who would be this mad over someone declining an offer? I sure wouldn’t!  Well ok…I’ll admit, to be honest I probably would, but that’s not the point! 

I start running for the air vent, considering the fact that it’s the only escape that was in my house. But my backpack was too large, it wouldn’t fit!  Yet the only big thing inside of it was my laptop! It was holding most of the weight! “No! No! No! Not my laptop!” The zombies started coming, I knew what I had to do. I grabbed my laptop and threw it at a zombie’s face. It falls and they start walking on it. Breaking it. I finally get my backpack in the air vent and before a zombie could even get me, I successfully get in and close the lid. “Phew, that was close…But my poor laptop!”

I begin to hear banging on the vents…or more like crawling. My air vents are basically like a maze, and somehow I can actually fit in these. I look around for the exit…But then hear crawling behind me. Curious, I look over my shoulder just to see A CRAWLING MONSTER THING! I start to crawl faster as sweat starts pouring down my face. Every few seconds I look over my shoulder just to see if it’s behind me, and obviously it was! Every corner I turn I attempt to make sure it isn’t there anymore. Luckily, I eventually found the exit…”How’s that guy so powerful? What’s his true intentions? And what’s his weakness…” I start walking across the street, attempting to find another safe and secure place.

I start to hear groans behind me, when I look there’s a hoard of them, with that same smile…I start running even though I’m out of breath…”I’m…not…gonna get..infected…not today..not tomorrow…not EVER..” Eventually I ran into a dead-end inside an alleyway. It looks as if it was the end. The zombies start inching closer and closer as I guess I was supposed to just sit there and let them devour me.

“Welp, surviving three months in a world-wide zombie apocalypse wasn’t all great, but at least I made it here..I’m thankful that I’ve survived all the way up to this moment, the end of my journey…”

I continue watching as they get closer and closer..I close my eyes, thinking some kind of miracle would happen, but judging from the situation, there’s no way out. While my eyes are closed, I can hear a helicopter from afar.

I didn’t think much of it, considering that it may be the police saving people, but what are the chances of them finding me.? For some reason I hear the helicopter coming closer to me…did they really come to save me? I hear a miracle. “Grab on!” a female voice yells. A ladder is lowered down to me. I grab onto it. It IS a miracle! “Look out!” she yells, and I look down as there are multiple zombies getting on the ladder.

The helicopter starts to ascend. I start kicking the zombies’ heads, so one by one they fall to the ground. Luckily, I got them all down, by just one foot. “Hang on, we’re flying you to our base! Can you hang onto that rope for a few minutes? Our helicopter’s kinda full!” 

I look up at her and smile. “SURE THING!” I yell. I watch as we fly into the night sky. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but this zombie apocalypse may be the funnest adventure I’ve ever been on! 

“Hmp, great job Ethan, you managed to survive my minions…however, once I get to make a deal with your friends, the world WILL be mine…just you wait….”


Demaur and Christopher are 12 years old and live in Philadelphia, PA. They like puzzles, art, architecture and writing. They’re still cooking up something special for Ethan’s continuation, stay tuned!

Some Stuff Ain’t for Sale

Year 2. For the last two years, we have lived and witnessed a level of community that we believe is worth a testimony.

Our testimony is that we’ve witnessed folks bring us cases of water to get through sidewalk sales in smoldering summer heat; we’ve watched piles of love letters and thank you cards and flowers and awards stack up behind our desk from well-wishers; we’ve hosted author readings on street corners and the orchestra in our living room and athletes and artists of every genre lend us their best.

Our community has ensured a few dozen youth have a safe nourishing place to call home–running daily operations, hosting our pop-up shops, book giveaways, and now the trolley tours.

Our community drives us to write more, and build more, and to listen more even in the face of the overt and covert vileness that seeks to take the best of us away from us. Did you know somebody almost got away with me?

Our sister bookshops are a social experiment in sisterhood and even under undeniable odds, we are thriving and flying where it matters most. But, as with any experiment, there are results to report.

The lyrics from Ntzoke Shange’s 1976 choreopoem, for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow was enuf, provide context for one of the revelations that we wish to address–

“Somebody almost walked off wid alla of my stuff,” Shange’s character, Lady in Green, says as if swats these words with her hips as she shares about being in love with “a kleptomaniac who was workin hard at forgettin while stealin/stealin all my shit.”

On our journey, we are more and more often finding institutions, corporations, organizations, media engines, and political figures who are way too similar to Lady In Green’s kleptomaniac lover. We are finding institutions that we have “made way too much room for” attempting to seduce us into long term relationships, and even birthing their children, knowing just like “a man who’s ego walked round like Rodan’s shadow” that they have no intentions of true love.

Instead there is a demand for our votes, our dollars, our attention spans, our memories, our signatures, our image and likeness, and all manners of coercion to try to steal our “anonymous ripped off treasures.” But this stuff is mine, Mr. Lousiana Hotlink.

This is not the first time that institutions, corporations, organizations, media engines, and political figures have tried to take off with “our stuff in a plastic bag beneath their arms.” This is how it has gone for generations–through the slavery and the civil war and the jane crow and the jazz and the renaissance and the marches and the redlining and the free breakfasts and the cyphas and the cross colors at every turn taking a dime for things that we didn’t even know we had. “Why dont ya find yr own things,” Shange’s Lady In Green says as she shimmys.

But the warning in Shange’s piece is not for the greedy lover that we have made too much room for; we expect them to behave the way they have always behaved. No, the Lady in Green is calling out to her sisters from a place of both shock and caution. She reminds us that they can’t have us, unless we give us away. That it is our responsibility to hold on to our stuff and to get it back if and when it gets confiscated.

Unfortunately, in the past, while some stood firm in the conviction that “I gotta have me in my pocket,” others were freely given up “our fried plantains/ pineapple pear juice/ sun-ra & joseph & jules in exchange” not realizing that we are the only ones who can truly handle our stuff. Giving it up, generation after generation, is like throwing our stuff in the sewer. It’s like a mammy nursing her master’s baby, while her own children starve. Some stuff ain’t for sale. Our stuff is not up for commodification/publication/classification/gentrification/decoration/replication.

So yeah, we taking our stuff back. We want our rhythms & our voices. We want our open mouths. We want our arms wit the hot iron scars. We want our legs wit the flea bites. We want our calloused feet & quik language. We want our stuff.

Say it loud, like the Lady In Green,

Our own things’/ that is our name.


For the last 10 years, Jeannine Cook has worked as a trusted writer for several startups, corporations, non-profits, and influencers. In addition to a holding a master’s degree from The University of the Arts, Jeannine is a Leeway Art & Transformation Grantee and a winner of the South Philly Review Difference Maker Award. Jeannine’s work has been recognized by several news outlets including Vogue Magazine, INC, MSNBC, The Strategist, and the Washington Post. She recently returned from Nairobi, Kenya facilitating social justice creative writing with youth from 15 countries around the world. She writes about the complex intersections of motherhood, activism, and community. Her pieces are featured in several publications including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Root Quarterly, Printworks, and midnight & indigo. She is the proud new owner of Harriett’s Bookshop in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.

Concealing Home – ONLINE BONUS

It will happen slowly.

You will go to college only one hour away, and on the first day, people will point out your tongue when you speak. They will make you say

Wooder

Baegel

There’s a mowse in my howse

A baeh-throom tal

Wut claehsses are yous taking?

just for their own laughter, and you will comply. You will laugh, too, and feel a pang below your sternum. This, you will learn, is how betrayal feels.

You will learn from your suitemate, who is an acting major, that one of the first rules of the stage involves stripping your tongue so that the audience can view you as being from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. It makes you more relatable and likable, she says.

You will become an actor, blanding your speech in claehsses classes and social circles and campus job interviews. You realize you sound more educated, more respectable, even more wealthy without the nasally “A”s and hard-ass attitude. Like you were born in an unidentifiable elsewhere.

But when you talk to your Mom over the phone or come home to Mayfair, you are back to saying things like

Mahm

Shuddup, no he din’t

Cumpnee

Wensdee

I hafta go

because you miss sounding and feeling like yourself.

But this longing is fleeting. You will go back and forth between roles all four years. You are on campus much more than you are home, and the line thins and thins until it vanishes.

You vanish.

You go to grad school and stand in front of your own classroom and don’t need to switch tongues for the first time. You do not even recognize yourself speaking. Maybe this is your “teacher voice.” But your practiced sounds permanent to the point that when your students and your colleagues and your professors find out where you’re from, they don’t believe you. “Northeast Philly!” / “Really? You don’t even sound like it.”

You will revel in this. In the ability to be both insider and outsider, local and visitor. To say and behave and act like I was born there, but I made it… always followed by the unspoken ‘out of there.’

You will fasten on this mask and take it off for no one. You relish in the taste.

It is why you will deeply hate moving back into your childhood home with your parents after getting a job in South Jersey. Your Dad wants you to stop wasting money on rent. You know he is right, but you will feel a tinge of resentment for those days, that house, even them. For three weeks, you will drive down to Center City after work and look at apartments behind their backs. You will sign a lease for a 450-square-foot studio and tell your parents that night that you’re moving out of the howse house.

You will forget what the pang below your sternum feels like.

In the city, you will give off an air of champagne, even though you wear cubic zirconia. You will take pleasure in knowing that you made it [out of there], that you are living outside of the bubble of broken-down rowhomes, shitty dive bars along Frankford Ave, and your grade school clique. You will pursue as many men as you can solely because they will take you to whatever restaurant you want, burn holes in their wallets for you, all because your tongue is charming, crassless.

It is how you will end up wearing an oversized diamond from a rich suburban boy from an even richer suburban family. How you will say ‘class’ with a long, sophisticated “A” as if you are taking a drag, as if there has never been any other way. How you and your parents will speak on different registers, and you will feel—with the faintest of pangs—estranged from them.

With every open mouth, you will sound like a traitor.

With every softened vowel, you know you are.


Laura Brzyski serves as the health and wellness editor for Philadelphia magazine. She lives in Philly (not a suburb of) with her husband and their dog, Bogey, and always has at least one Stock’s poundcake on hand in the freezer.