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Flash fiction

I’ll vote for you!

He sat on the lonely bench, watching us as we pelted
each other with snowballs.

“This one’s for the old guy in the suit!” shouted Jerry, aim-
ing for him.

“No!” I cried stopping him. The man stood, and walked towards us. “Thank you.” He said smiling at me “It was a rough day at the White House.”

 

 

Marianna Bergues is 14 years old, lives in Narberth, PA, and is homeschooled. She loves to write fiction and has tried to write her own children’s story. She’s not sure who her favorite author is but she thinks she’d have to say J.K. Rowling (because she LOVES Harry Potter) or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Marianna studies creative writing at the “Teen Lit Magazine” workshop at the Musehouse Literary Arts Center in Germantown (www.musehousecenter.com).

The Light

The light, the light, it’s calling my name
The heart, the peace is running through me
The night, the light is on me now
Right, left, up and down
I like them all; I can’t decide
Oh house, oh house, what is my name?
Do you know it?
I know, you know
The light and the rain
I know they’re calling me
Everything is beautiful
So, so beautiful

 

Elle Julius is 7 years old and lives in Ardmore, PA. with her mother, father, aunt, and brother Wyatt, who is 5 and has autism. Elle is a wonderful big sister to her brother. She attends Penn Valley Elementary School and is in 2nd grade. She loves reading books and writing poetry.

Humming

If I, when my technological conveniences are off
And the mail has come,
and the moon has risen, high in the sky, resting
In the embrace of fog
Above withered trees,
If I, in my scarcely lighted room,
Hum loudly and quite off key,
Clapping my hands to the butchered beat.
Humming, quite off key, to myself, humming,
Louder,
Louder,
with each passing
breath.
If I, admire my voice,
my tone, my pitch, my rhythm
Against the shallow ambiance of the outside
Who is to say I am not
the vocal prodigy of my household

 

Isa Long is a 14 year old writer living in the western section of Philadelphia. Some of his influences include: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Amanda Matuskey, and Michael Crichton. Isa studies creative writing at the “Teen Lit Magazine” workshop at the Musehouse Literary Arts Center in Germantown (www.musehousecenter.com).

The Night Sky

If when the sun is moving
and the moon and stars
are elsewhere
and the sky is a righteous marvel
in constant wonder
above amazed eyes
if I in my house
stare out awed
behind my window
watching with wonder
and gently tap my fingers
tap tap
tap tap tap
on the window sill
if at night
I admire all the constellations
and all the wondrous stars
against the black night sky
who shall say I am
wasting my time…

 

Mia Nadira Carter studies creative writing at the “Teen Lit Magazine” workshop at the Musehouse Literary Arts Center in Germantown (www.musehousecenter.com).

The Yellow

Oh, look at the yellow in the birch trees!
The rain pours and they fall to the ground,
Like heavy snowflakes.
Look at the yellow and the green under my shoes.
Now shiny, wet and slippery.
The rain is gone now,
And all is quiet.
Everyone is home,
The chickadees are in their nests,
The squirrels are safe in their dens.
It’s just me out here,
stuck in the humidity.
It’s finally fall again.

 

Marianna Bergeus is 14 years old, lives in Narberth, PA, and is homeschooled. I love to write fiction and have tried to write my own children’s story. I’m not sure who may favorite author is but I think I’d have to say J.K. Rowling (because I LOVE Happy Potter) or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Marianna studies creative writing at the “Teen Lit Magazine” workshop at the Musehouse Literary Arts Center in Germantown (www.musehousecenter.com).

The Mobster Speaks

I am in hand cuffs…again.
They don’t know I did it.
I’m smarter than those investors.
I know how to make money.
They don’t.
I remember that Halloween night in1989.
I was dining at Dante & Luigi’s.
As I ate my spaghetti, a man pulled a gun
out of a trick or treat bag and shot me.
But I lived through that. And I can do it again.

 

Levi Veleanu is 9 years old and lives in West Mt. Airy. He is homeschooled. He participated in last November’s NaNoWriMo challenge and averaged 290 words per day on his novel, The Dragon Dream. He was a student in the Tween Lit Magazine course at Musehouse.

Monologue

Based on the Philadelphia Inquirer story ‘Pilot gets 366 days in fatal Duck crash’.

“You should’ve stepped away
You were trained to step away
I don’t know why you didn’t.”
Said the captain yesterday
But the deaths they saw were hidden
When her call came to me, unbidden

A single call
A courtroom wall
She never should’ve told me
Their final breath
The stench of death
The law would take and hold me

The steamboat rolled
The gray river rolled
2:37 P.M. in July
When the teenagers’ fate was told
I felt guilt when they asked me why
And it’s not in my heart to lie

A single call
A courtroom wall
She never should’ve told me
Their final breath
The stench of death
The law would take and hold me

“I shouldn’t have called him
Oh, why did I call him?”
Cried my wife, and tore at her hair
She said “Surgeons have sinned
Left our son without air
As his eyes were fixed in their lair.”

A single call
A courtroom wall
She never should’ve told me
My sentence stands
In judges’ hands
A year and a day, they’ll hold me.

 

Lily Alexandra Mell is twelve years old and is homeschooled. She lives in Center City, Philadelphia. She has written many
short stories and poems in the last few years, though this is her first time being published. She is currently writing a science
fiction – fantasy novel. She greatly admires the published author Tamora Pierce and aspires to write as well as she does.

Time

I am time.
I am that which was, which is, which will be.
I am the now, the then, the flexible future and the potent past.

That which is, was.
That which was, will be again.
That which will be, is now.

I am creation.
I am destruction.
I am all.

All that is great, is nothing.
All that is worthless, may be vital.
All that is mighty, all that is proclaimed to be great and wonderful,
is nothing before me.

I am all.
I am that which you lose and gain.
I am the infinite, the immeasurable, the unstoppable.

The greatest giants, the mightiest mountains, the most amazing
creations, both artificial and natural-all those are dust before me.
They who live may try to control me-to measure me, change their
travel through my flow, disrupt me, even harness me, shift my ebb
and flow. Yet the most ambitious plans must fail before me, the
mightiest beings bend to me.

I am infinitely complex.
I am the bringer of darkness, the destroyer of worlds.
I am that which was, which is, which could be, and that which
must never be.
In creation, there is destruction.
In destruction, there is rebirth.
There is no such thing as void, all things are in flux.
This is my nature.
Fire and ice, light and dark, life and death, energy and matter,
all these bend before me, for I am time.

 

 

Jonathan is 16 years old and attends Northeast High School in Philadelphia. His favorite subjects are English and History.
He has lived in Philadelphia for 12 years, previously he lived in Cleveland, Ohio. His hobbies are reading and writing stories, particularly science fiction and doing karate.

Insights of a Dying Man

If a knife is stabbing me in my chest
While my wife and child are sleeping
And some superior force is burning me
In the pitch black dark
Over my head under my feet,
While I on my porch
Sing, killing me softly by Lauren Hill
Out to the people of the world
As they throw sticks and stones, as they break my bones
As I tell myself: “I am not afraid, I am not afraid,
I was meant not to be,
So I shall stay that way!”
If I take my pride, strength,
And power
And put myself against the world,
Who is anybody to say I’m dying?

 

 

Eliah studies creative writing at the “Teen Lit Magazine” workshop at the Musehouse Literary Arts Center in Germantown
(www.musehousecenter.com).

Day and Night

When it is day, it is blue
When it is dark, the sky is new
When it is day again, I feel free
When it is night, the stars twinkle
When it is day, I try to fly
When it is day, I like to swing up high by the sky

 

 

Elle Julius is 7 years old and lives in Ardmore, PA. with her mother, father, aunt, and brother Wyatt, who is 5 and has autism. Elle is a wonderful big sister to her brother.  She attends Penn Valley Elementary School and is in 2nd grade.  She loves reading books and writing poetry.