Enlight'ning - Magazine of Art & Literature — Harker Middle School

Enlight'ning 2015: The Time Issue

Down with the Delta Tunnels

by

Water is perhaps the most essential resource for human civilization. Most early settlements developed near or around rivers such as the Tigris, Euphrates, and Indus for easy access to water for drinking and irrigation. The importance of water has become even more pronounced in modern times, since all products made from paper, fabric, metal and plastic are water-intensive. California is a state especially dependent on a steady supply of water due to a large population of citizens and a growing economy that has established strong footholds in everything from handheld electronic gadgets to farming. However, as of December 2014, a year-long drought already has officials mounting desperate ad campaigns for conservation, citizens reporting each other for hosing off the sidewalk, and countless dry, yellowed lawns. [Read more…]

The Truck Talk

by

Dedication: four syllables, ten letters. The dictionary definition says that dedication is the quality of being committed to a task or purpose. That’s true, but when I think of dedication, I think of one thing. Polo.

I’ve been playing polo for two years now and have already hit some bumps in my very short career. Starting young, I’ve never truly felt respected, as I was inexperienced and shorter than at least half of my clubmates, the tallest being six foot six. Even so, no matter how much the older boys teased me, I wanted to keep going. It was easier said than done. [Read more…]

Not Human

by

Again, I woke with a strange taste in my mouth, as if I had swallowed something sour and metallic. Just the result of falling asleep with my mouth wide open, I supposed.

Eager to get to work early that morning and review any new evidence, I hastily showered. While massaging shampoo onto my scalp, sizable amounts of hair clung to my fingers. I realized that I was balding and sighed. The stress of being one of the youngest, yet most highly decorated private investigators in the city really took its toll.  [Read more…]

Letter to My Five Year Old Self

by

Don’t ever stop dreaming.

Don’t let your thoughts by confined by rules

because you’re a jewel.

You’re a clean, unwrinkled piece of paper,

the fresh, the uncut.

Your ideas haven’t been criticized,

edited, trimmed down;

To you, the world is a playground;

take a swing at imagination:

there’s no one to hopscotch over your goals.

Don’t let the lines of the coloring book fool you.

They’re not boundaries, just a guideline set to crush

the black sheep of the group.

Don’t be afraid to be the only girl in kindergarten

who wants to be CEO of Apple

instead of a beautiful ballerina

because it’s okay to defy stereotypes.

Lift your head up high,

and remember that no one can stop you

from climbing to the top of that slide.

When you drop your ice cream, I want you to be

that kid who picks it back up off the floor.

When you try no training wheels for the first time,

I want you to be that kid who gets up and laughs

after scraping your knee on the floor

because that’s courage.

 

You probably understood none of this — after all,

you’re five years old.

But what I really wanted to say was,

Make your own story.

Stand over your stuffed animals in glory

and tell them what to do:

don’t make yourself the puppet, be the puppetmaster.

Be you

because that’s enough.