Page 30 - THE BOOK 11 12 2020 8 pm FINAL_Neat

SLEEP STORY II

I’m on the so-fa,
and I look around,

and there are people everywhere, staring at me.
I try to speak,

but all that comes out are hating words,
and I can’t close my mouth.

Everyone is starting to talk to me, but I can’t hear them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arabella Serfilippi
Emerald L.A.

Ed. Isaac Ylitalo
SLEEP STORY I

I feel the dry dirt on my feet.

I brush it off with a fast
sweep of my hands and walk

into the tent. Behind me I hear
a fast flap of the tent’s fabric closing,

but all I see is white light burning my eyes.

My stomach turns, and my vision blurs.

I close my eyes tight
but when I open them again I am at the grocery store.

Standing right in front of me is Mama, Father, and Lual.

They stare with dark cold eyes that used to be warm and loving,
and then they yell.

You left us! You left your family!

Their voices sting my ears
in a million different types of pain.

29