IDRYO

Literary Magazine

A hero.

But who truly is a hero?

Is a hero a zodiac like Leo?

Or is it someone made of steel?

Or a tower of answers that cannot be revealed?

Until peak climax--

It just seems surreal.

I sit across from my two

The two that spawn that word

We are in a quiet limbo

Of a white and pure church steeple

As I ponder a question

“What truly is a hero?”

Am I, myself, a hero?

I don’t really think so.

My grandfather however

Has earned that title so

He has kind eyes

A sharp but fading mind

That makes me feel so happy

And at home- it’s kinda fly.

He taught me how to gamble

He inspired me to draw

Now I only scrawl

for all projects soon to fall.

HOPE

Jace Salera

If hope is the light at the end of the tunnel

What happens when your tunnel caves in

What happens when the bridges you built, the farms you’ve grown

The homes you’ve kept, the culture you’ve breathed, the village you’ve raised fade away

Burn to the ground, disappear never found

Get shot through the heart, been doomed from the start,

Turn to dust, but try you must

To find the hope

If when you say goodbye you expect never to see a new day rise

as the bullets fly, and the bodies lie on the ground on which you pound

and scream at the top of your lungs “I’ll fight!”

Standing as one we vow to bar none

because now more than ever we unite here together

Through trials and tribulations we confirm the belief

that a new day will come

A day without soldiers reaping the masses

A day without spreading your loved ones ashes

A time without war a moment without gore

One more second with the people you love

THE BACK TALKER

Gayatri Venkatesan

I WON'T MIND

Kaiden Carlson

This isn’t what I want.

It’s not what I need.

Dancing in my room is a sin I suffer to be

And somehow when I think of it I want to dance with you.

I can’t express it to you, you hide your heart and I respect it but dear

My feelings on you are made complexities like Picasso shattered

pieces and I hope my heart can’t replicate that

I hope it doesn’t, but I’ll let it be if it’s you

It started as a glance or two and now we talk quite often

And I refuse to think it’s love because that would be a shame

But loving like this is a slow burning complex

Like thick wood that can’t be burnt

But can you burn through me?

Maybe you have, maybe you are aware

But that smile and way you stare makes me think you’re as oblivious

as I am to my feelings and maybe being acquaintances is all we will

have with each other

But I won’t mind, only if it’s for you.

FALLING

Amber Duncan

music

Jake DeMarco

There’s many types

Rap, country, hip-hop

Classical, metal, rock

Someone takes some words

They make a beat

Put ‘em together, it’s a song

But it’s not that simple-

Music isn’t just words, it’s not just a beat

It’s a form of art, I suppose

With melodical prose

That’ll get you up off your feet

And out of your seat

But it’s not just a rat-a-tat-tat

It’s deeper than that

We gotta give it respect

It’s a way to connect

So no, it ain’t just some lame rhyme

It’s a culture, a creation

Of a beautiful nation

In which belonging, you will find.

The pictures I’ve brought up have established something with me

The places I slot into in the minds of peers I know

Or love

Grant me some kind of a realistic dream I feel I must live up to.

While being a congratulating king of congruence to these images

I find myself more lonely than I’d like

I hate being social

I can’t do it normally

No one reaches out so I swim on my own

And while being alone is nice, I have too much time with that

In drafting to craft a staff of realism

A poem designed to entice people’s eyes

I blind and bind myself to my lacking abilities

Because although I can’t speak I can rhyme

And while I can’t rhyme I do really try

Try to configure a sign to realize it’s not time

Go to the bathroom

And clean off the clown mask

You made for yourself because you are lonely

Why are we all so lonely?

POETRY MADE LONELY

Kaiden Carlson

So I got a class announcement on Monday,

And of course I wanted to procrastinate

Not to elaborate, and certainly not to poem.

Pardon me though,

I find myself in class repeating in a toe loop low

Up down up down, raise your hand, class clown

Push up and past The bleak and gray and

Now I'm stuck in chemistry

To write chemical equations quizzically

While I hear no one caring behind me

I feel the student body grow tired and weary

But hallway crushes can’t even help you see

But anyways, onto the subject matter

Grow on past the plans I sit at desks and make poems

Some will be great comedies while others stoop in silence

Creeping sadness we can’t speak of

HOW TO MAKE A POEM

Kaiden Carlson

But wait, we can’t say that stuff with our peers

Refocus and align Kaiden find a new subject

A passion or craft can combine into a story I find fine

But other people crafting insecurities renders me fearful to tell them

And while civil rights talk is alright to write

I don’t wanna be barked at

And love is too cliche’ to conjure up into its purest poetic form

So what do I do?

A parody of a parody?

How about a poem of a poem?

Or the process of a poem coming into its own creation?

Nah, that’s a bad idea.

A TREE

Nadia Angelucci

SHIELD

Emily Bitner

I always held a shield

Between me and you.

Protecting you

From me

What hit the shield

Fell in a jar

Jars stacked

Filling my chest

Breaking me down

Breaking but still

Holding the shield

For you

But you promised,

Promised that you

were safe.

You would be safe.

I put my shield

An inch too low

Just because

You wanted to see

You promised the

Cracks weren’t

because of me

That it didn't hurt 

I watched as

The cracks spread

Tears in my eyes

Trying to reach out 

They took you away

Mixing these cracks

With self made ones

Trying to slow the pain

You had to survive.

I am so sorry

Because my love,

What were you to do?

The cracks were’t

Yours to bear.

This wasn't your

Pain to have.

Maybe you would

Be happy, be safe

If it weren't for the glimpse

That I allowed

FOG

Amber Duncan

FOR WANT OF A BREAK

Caroline Rendell

For want of a break, the momentum was lost

For want of momentum, the pencil was dropped

For want of the pencil, the words were forgotten

For want of the words, the essay was lost

For want of the essay, the project was failed

For want of the project, the grade was lost

For want of the grade, the semester was lost

For want of the semester, the year was lost

For want of the year, the drive was lost

For want of the drive, the diploma was lost

For want of the diploma, the opportunity was lost

For want of the opportunity, the job was lost

For want of the job, the money was lost

For want of the money, the marriage was lost

For want of the marriage, the children were lost

For want of the children, the joy was lost

For want of the joy, the friendships were lost

For want of the friendships, the will was lost

For want of the will, the life was lost

All for the want of a break.

WEEDS

Emily Bitner

MY OLD FRIEND ADDICTION

Rylin Sage Bresset

I hope that I'm floating, but you have a scheme up your sleeve,

You start with the attacks, making everything go black,

And my mind starts spinning and rolling around till it is laying onto the ground

It's as if I've fallen into a lake and ya know almost drowned.

My dear old friend, how you have been with me through my hardest times,

And I know you will be with me throughout my lifetime,

You’ve taken everything from me and consume my thoughts,

You’ve honestly made me very distraught,

You’ve made me feel like I'm “water under the bridge”

You’ve made me feel like I should just jump off a ridge,

I get it,

I do,

I mean we’ve been friends for so long,

But I think you have this friendship all wrong.

It’s time I say goodbye again,

But don't worry,

I’ll be craving your presence in about a week's time,

We have a type of bond that anyone that has met you would understand.

I love the way you make me feel and I could never let that go,

For you have been the only friend that doesn’t make me psycho.

So for now my dear friend, I have to bid you goodbye,

But don't you worry,

It was quite the ride.

SUNSHINE STARS

Amber Duncan

AN ODE TO RUNNING

Jace Orsini

Remember me, remember you

(for patience and elisha stigora)

Amber Duncan

They are going

Leaving

And I am afraid

I'm scared to be lonely

What if I'm forgotten

Time whisked you away

Time torn you away from me

Curse time!

It goes too fast

When you're gone, what will I do?

Who will remember you

And who will remember me?

Nobody will care

Everyone will forget

Your life was too short

You were gone in a flash

Lost in the wind

And time won't stop

Time is looking, searching for me!

And I, I will soon be found

Then I will be gone too.

Then what?

What happens next?

Will we be forgotten?

History won't tell of us

Unless we do something greater

Greater, as in greater than everything

Anything, anyone else has done

But not everyone can be a saint,

a cynic, a perfectionist, a hero

Which is why some people live

And are remembered

While others die

And are forgotten

I can’t change how the world sees me

But I can try to show the world how good I am

Even then

Knowledge and wisdom of the world

Won't help people to see me

As who I am

And who am I to question

The standards of this world

Does everyone get their fair share?

This life we are living is so unjust

Some live others die

But for what?

What good does this do?

So I ask again and again

Who will be remembered?

Me? You?

Will I be remembered for writing this poem?

About how time whisked you away?

About how this life is unjust?

About how some are remembered

And some aren't?

About life and death?

Probably not.

Because people do greater things than this

You can check when I’m dead 

Because I would like to be remembered

I'm writing this in 2021

When I’m only 15

Sitting in an empty hallway

While seniors are flying away

My cousins are flying away

My friends are flying away

Nobody will be left

I will be lonely

And time isn’t my friend

And it's not yours

Because who will be remembered,

I will be remembered

And so will my friends.

OVILLEJOS

• a Spanish poetic form
  
• a 10-line verse that is structured in measurement segments that unravels a train of thought
• iambic with a rhyme scheme of AA BB CC CDDC
  
• the first six lines alternate between tetrameter and dimeter, the next three lines are tetrameter, and the final line consists of lines 2, 4, and 6 in a row
  

Should I keep going now?

I vow;

I can’t quite quit just yet,

Forget,

The pressure keeps on mounting,

Counting,

I’m near-drowning in work,

I just can’t promise this,

My time just goes amiss,

I vow; forget counting.

Sevan Sinton

I strive but hit a wall -

I fall.

I wallow in the burn

then learn

to wipe tears from my eyes,

to rise,

and seek the biggest prize:

the knowledge that I can

become my biggest fan.

I fall, then learn to rise.

Mrs. Turley

My head is full of rot.

Do not,

Worry away or fret.

Forget,

The days worth by moon,

So soon.

The human mind’s lampoon.

Hollowed out like a tree,

What is the long term fee?

Do not forget so soon.

Sarah Dutton

Rain falls quickly as clouds cry.

The sky.

Lightning flash like jagged scars,

And stars

Shine above it all so bright,

Alight

As fire against the night.

Fiery hope and flame collide

Behind the fluffy clouds worldwide,

The sky and stars alight.

Bridget Casey

I stand in the morning:

Soaring

Bees land on pale flowers,

Birds scour,

The weeping willow tree

‘Fore me,

All at home by the sea.

I read my worn out book,

Flipping the page I look.

Soaring birds scour ‘fore me.

Savannah Butler

The beautiful sky

Welcomes the bright golden sun

Like a baking loaf

Sara Kouibaa

Autumn is coming

Pumpkins, apples, and scarecrows

Crisp weather is here

Zoey Zimmerman

Leaves crunch, under trees

Foot step, tripped on a lump

“Ow!” What could it be?

Annaliese Schreiber

After a rainstorm,

The pavement full of brown curves

A worm rendezvous

Sarah Dutton

Fish dive into waves

Near my house by the seaside

Calming lapping waves

Savannah Butler

• a Japanese poetic form
• consists of three lines with a total of 17 syllables (timing units known as "morae"): five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line
• often centered upon matters of human nature in an contemplative, ironic, and musing manner
  

At the climax of

battle, the soldiers stop and

stare for a moment

Sevan Sinton

She smiles fondly

Watching him pace around the room

Waiting for the truth

Sara Kouibaa

At the peak of our

childhood, we are happy

But then we grow up

Zoey Zimmerman

Idiocracy.

Children running, blind to the

problems they will face.

Savannah Butler

He kept on running,

from who, what, where, when, or why?

Past the old, wood barn,

and up on the gravel path,

broken memories of his.

Sevan Sinton

The super cute boy

With the devious smile

Taught me that love is

The foundation of your life

Euphoric and intimate

Zoey Zimmerman

Grid of slinking cars.

Numb pedestrians hustle.

The city below

moving, alive and breathless,

unaware of the moonlight.

Mrs. Turley

Rain ruins

plans we made last night

while talking

and dreaming

of moving out and living

in our own place soon.

Instead we

sit inside thinking,

arguing,

realizing

we might not be good roommates,

too stubborn to love.

Mrs. Turley

He likes to

Lie to his parents

Unable

To tell the

Truth of his false hearted tales

In a web of lies

Zoey Zimmerman

Stone towers

overlook the dry,

barren field,

tall grasses

swaying in the ruthless wind

of the approaching

thunderstorm.

The surrounding plants

overgrown,

with ivy

vines scaling up the cracking

cobblestone fortress.

Bridget Casey

Clouds roll by,

We train together.

Our blades touch

With a “clash”.

In the overgrown garden,

She laughs happily.

“I’m doing

Good, aren’t I?” she asks

With a smile.

Her cute smile.

“Of course, princess, you’re stunning.”

She blushes madly.

Savannah Butler

CINQUAINS

• a French poetic form
• composed of stanzas of five lines (thus is also known as a "quintain" or "quintet")
• consists of 22 syllables: two syllables in the first line, four syllables in the second line, six syllables in the third line, eight syllables in the fourth line, and two syllables in the fifth line
  

Road trip

with windows down,

wings spread like birds, no bounds,

driving through farm, desert, city,

searching

Looking

for a new place to settle down,

leave memories behind,

grow roots, find hope.

Fresh start.

Mrs. Turley

The queen.

She awaits me.

Would she die without me?

I must save her majesty, but

I won’t.

Savannah Butler

We walk

With hand in hand

Darting eyes, anxiety rise

Sweaty palms, squeeze one, squeeze two, I’m In love

Annaliese Schreiber

From two

Lovers lost between the lines from

One to one another.

No longer two

But one.

Preston Hoyle