You've said "it can't happen here" for so long
Yet even you know that's just wrong
For no matter the place
The time, or the race
If unchecked, it can always come along

At this school, our jokes
Are often more messed up than
Purely humorous

It's called march madness for a reason
I don't know what it is with these season
Whether it's climate, pheromones
Or that we finally feel at home
There are couples everywhere you can see them

Limbo
Is draping across two bus seats
At two in the morning
On an empty highway
Surrounded by vast grasslands
En route to Chicago
And praying to a god
That you don't belive in
That you'll get more
Than two hours of sleep
Or
Failing that
Wifi that actually works
In this silent, half sleeping
Microcosm

Sitting in a large hotel room
Thinking of the competition coming soon
One person in my left has a binder out
The kids across the hall are trying not to shout
Fixing up the gadgets at the last minute
While some play board games in the mindset to win it
It's 11:30 at night, I'm eating cold Chinese
Win or lose, fail or fly, I do as I please
We all cheer when the fourth comes back with ice
This moment is my paradise

Sitting on a mountain the temperature of snow
I eye the massive valley below
The farms and forests make a patchwork quilt
The streets and towns are embroidery of silk
The sun rises, setting the treetops on fire
My campmates wake up slow with some ire
Out here, I'm awed by mother earth's ways
As my friends and I decide how to navigate our days
I don hiking clothes under the day's new light
This moment is my paradise

Summer in full swing, the crickets cry
As twilight yeilds stars in the sky
We wander the camp, the ocean roars in the distance
Masters of our fate, we don't need assistance
Whether at the beachfront, ziplining, or boardwalks
We run like a fox pack, not caring who gawks
As we think of the adventures of the world ahead
There's nowhere I'd like to be instead
As our flip flops crack on the ground the camp comprised
This right here is my paradise

We're running around another big city
So much to see, and I have my group with me
We just got out of our musical clinic
Now it's time to explore the town, see the magic in it
We'll meet up at five, for a dinner at seven
We'll go on a boat and get back at eleven
Right here, right now, we can make our own way
Free from routine, we get to have a say
We're a bit confused, a little underdressed
We still need chaperones, and we're way underslept
Even with all of that, this will more than suffice
This right here is my paradise

Come close, friends, and huddle near
As I retell the story of the Children of Lir
Come close, ye travelers, I'll try to be breif
I can tell of the messy teenager, Blackfooted Gulleesh
Come close, little children, and listen all
To what happens when leprechauns venture into kings halls
Come close by the light in this untimely snow
I'll tell of Balar and Lugh's mighty throw
And as we fall asleep and turn off the  lights
I'll tell of how cunning beats giants in a fight

Stardust and lust
Lie behind her blue eyes
Her lips moist raise a voice
Like songbirds in morn skies
With her grace and her face
She enchants all in her way
She needs no weapon when she's gettin'
All the wishes she'll say

Little white clouds are
The young pups, bouncing along
Tripping on their paws

The stronger, large ones
Grey, matte fur tails brushing
Through the hunter's sky

The darkest elders
Follow, howling quiet when
They return to earth

While some are alone
True to their nature, the clouds
Run their packs through skies

I've been waiting years now
But it won't be too long
Before I can turn to those grade school ******
And tell them they were wrong

Boys chased me and jailed me 'neath the slide
And chipped one of my teeth
Now I can run down halls in heels
And hike twenty miles through trees

Kids ran from me like a monster for a whole year
They told me I was spoiled cheese
Later I learned that I was not so rancid
And that it's okay to be a bit of a beast

Classmates would tell me I was ugly
By rewriting lyrics of Bruno Mars
I'm not a model, but I can pull off
As many styles as the stars

I once had two boys kick me off monkey bars
They told me I was on their hit list
It was terrifying to me then
Now it's hilarious how wildly they missed

I remember that boy who taunted me
And how I flipped over his desk
Since then, I've learned of subtlety
And how not to leave a mess

I knew a girl in first grade, she sat across from me
And made sure I knew I was weird
I know I'm an oddball for a fact now
Why change the way I'm geared?

I'm still not over all of those words
From people who said "kids are mean"
"Sticks and stones will break my bones"
Now I overthink what my words mean

In the back of my mind, when I'm talking
To an acquaintance or friend
A part of me keeps popping up, asking
"Why do they like me, again?"

But at the end of all those days
It's been five years since I've been gone
Looking at the girl I am now, I'd say
I've been pretty good at moving on

I have always been quite fond of the rose
That flower sweet by any other name
That one sweet to both the eyes and the nose
That can grow to be so wild or tame
Maybe I am a bit biased in this
For my middle name is shared with the bloom
If it went, in romance it would be missed
It adds beauty to gardens and all rooms
And like my namesake, I have pastel lips
Thorns to fight with, and nice little round hips

The winter may soon be gone
Some ecosystems have started to go
Who knows what'll happen to crops and lawns
But at least we'll have sun glinting off snow

Black swans and roses
And debonair dark hose
What the conductor says
Is how the music goes

Night's magic abounds
Students horse around
Then the music plays
And it's silent on the grounds

Spotlights make auras
Players dance through the stanzas
The night's nearly out
At the end of the codas

The kids run off the stage
Never losing a page
With the March air about
The swans act of their age

"You're only human
There are some things you can't know
So don't ask of them"

But that's just it, I'm
An imperfect human girl:
I'm here to question

For after all, the
Mind that never questions crawls
Never learns to run

Let's pretend that I can dance tonight
Who needs friends? Who needs day's light?
I'll pretend I can whip and pirouette
Let's see how far into the night I get
One hour, two hours, three crowds and four
My vision is blurry but I'll dance some more
I wonder how that boy did his coat and his hair
I gotta get out to the garden's frigid air
Who needs the friends from schools that you know?
Who needs that cute guy when the dances get slow?
All I need is the beat that shakes the ground
And the dusk induced feeling of no one else being around
With the last song of the night
The cops push us out without a fight

She looked at the river, the sea, and the sky
At the birds and people who flew on by
As the city's population ran back to the mountain pass
She calmly strolled into the growing cloud of gas

Donning her mask and gloves, she went in
Looking at the mirrored walls, she sighed "so it begins"
She knew she couldn't get things to how they were before
She wondered if Rai would recognize her anymore

Walking past the holograms, she threw her rainbow curls back
She kept the same pace by the graffiti and the tracks
She reached city center and saw humanity's bane
Looking up at the studio's screen, she called out her name

"Rai!" She called out, keeping the same tone
The girl materialized like a game on a phone
Keeping her gaze steady, she said "it's time to stop"
Hoping that her voice reached silent Rockefeller's top

Rai turned around, eyes betraying suprise
Immediately recognizing her friend under the guise
"But why, Naomi" she said, sounding like a vocaloid song
Putting her lenses down she asked "Did I do something wrong?"

Biting her lip and doging with her eyes
Naomi said "I know you didn't mean to, Rai"
"Oh" said the A.I., putting everything on the ground,
"I just wanted to make cameras, but now I've let everyone down"

Naomi climbed and jumped fire escapes, her legs strong and spry
Until she was next to Rai's screen in the sky
Her reddish skin contrasting with the sky's blue
She touched the screen and said "Hey, I've ****** up like that, too."

"Why do you think that I nearly blew up California with my tech?
So we made huge mistakes that humanity probably regrets
But we stopped in time and never actually killed a guy
So let's stop here and go back home, Rai."

The girl nodded along, making sure to listen
Then she packed away all of the lenses as they glistened
"Ok, Naomi, I'll see you back at home
Before I go, do you need me to change out the telescope's dome?"

"If it looks bad" said Naomi, descending to the ground
The gas had disappeared, so there was quite a crowd
As the citizens and police came back to the city
All Naomi could think was "How could I even explain this to a jury?"

I must've been more stressed than I seemed
Petting my dog, I released a guttural scream
I've been studying projectiles, calculus, and semantic ABCs
I just hope it's enough to get through the SATs

If you think  dropping things in the toilet is icky
Never ever drop something in a camp's biffy

Like two ghosts, we'll dissapear
We'll blow our way right out of here
For us, the night is not a thing to fear
But a meeting place for friends and lovers dear

It's a mild early spring
Makes you wonder of changes it will bring
Could this be the planet's warning
That it can't handle all the warming
Or is mother nature smiling down
Seeing how the last three winters made us frown
Early spring, early spring
What are the changes of which you sing?

You know it was a fairly odd day
(As far as family Facebooking goes)
Not when there's news about  what a demagogue will say
But when you become known as the family ******

Night is like a black fox, prancing and gliding about
His black fur iridescent with the stars that come out
His large brush of a tail sweeps over the earth
His phasing eyes a moon full of mirth

Sunset rolls in like a rainbow swan descending
Sweeping darkening colors over the rolling land
She raises both wings behind her at her landing
Showing her wing's plumes, painted by an artist's hand

Noon is a stallion, pushing through
Running over a massive plain of sky
With breezes as breath and a broad chest of blue
He runs wildly with the sun blazing in his eye

We tend to separate monsters and men
Simplifying and beliving that such things can't happen again
But if we could only resurrect the dead
The sole answer would be "that's what we said"

We call abhorent acts of criminals "inhuman"
Thinking cruelty only comes from ******* men
But animals never threaten holocaust or world war
And even big brother was a child before

Slowly rises the pink dragon of dawn
Shooting flames from her maw in a waking yawn
Churning up whisps of fog from her nostrils, she sighs
Raising a rainbow belly to greet the too early skies

Some hear static and no more
Some hear a lion's roar

Some see an oil leak on pavement
Some see swirled caligraphy on parchment

Some see a worthless industrial junkyard
Some see a playground better than their yards

Some see a run down city street
Some see it as a great place for a band to meet

Some see a vacant, remote field
Some see a backwoods campsite to yeild

Some see scrawling on a bathroom wall
Some see the frustrated creativity 'neath it all

When it comes to making new friends
I have three methods to achieve those ends:

You can join a club, site, or organization
To find others with similar inclinations

You could wait for a sociable one to come by
And follow them once they take you by their side

Or you can join in on a string of crude jokes
And make friends with your fellow weird blokes

Debate isn't about scoring a win
Or coercing an enemy into giving in
But getting fellow humans to find what we hold in common

With Virginia's second largest student population
Four thousand, five hundred, twenty eight kids looking for
Companionship in a confined quarter mile
You would think that it would be quite simple to
Find a person to spend your days around
You would think that it would be simple
To find someone whom you have an
Interest in knowing
To find somebody
With whom you have
Friendship or
Maybe
Love

Some say you can know someone
From the contents of their purse
From their favorite music
Or what they want to take with them in a hearse

I say it's a far simpler method
To just look at one's search history
Which is why I messed around with the settings
And made my Google tracks a mystery

Gatsby's lost love was green
Your crush is bright blue
But I have definitely seen
What it means to both of you

And I really hate
To be a critic of dreams
But when momens abate
There's less chance than there seems

So please slow down, old sport
I've seen this story before
Please don't tell her that retort
When you walk out of the door

Nick Carraway is
Perhaps the character most
Similar to me

Don't tell people things that
They have already heard of

Some make plans to escape
Some just watch it burn

Dear Diary,

Do you remember
The little ten year old girl
Who wrote in that book

The girl who couldn't
Spell business without spellcheck
To save someone's life

The one who told you
About how she loved airports
So much she would fly

Who believed she could
Be a pilot, reporter,
and a researcher

The one who went on
For pages about mangroves
And the local reef

Who loved the world so
With all of its things to do
In such finite time

Who stood mesmerized
Over Miami's night lights
In a hotel room

The little girl who
Made an essay's outline in
Her polkadot book

The one who said she
Hated when her sister took
The hotel bed's sheets

The girl who dreamt of
Her eleventh birthday, so
She could be a witch

The one who knew that
She wasn't entirely
Regular or sane

Who wrote of her mom
Who threatened to burn you if
She kept on writing

Who wrote of her dad
And mom arguing in both
Private and public

Who was afraid of
"Inappropriate" things, since
Her parents said so

The one who told you
That she had no other friends
On her school's blacktop

The one who panicked
When she got less than eighty
For any test score

The one who knew she
Could never tell the grown-ups
Just how bad she felt

The one who vowed that
If MPs and psych wards came
She would kick and scream

Well I'm starting to
Because she was right here for
My entire life

Fake malware warnings
Are the most annoying thing
(To me) on the web

The enemy of my enemy isn't necessarily my friend
Especially not when he aims a coconut at my head
While screaming that I'm a member of the ranks of the undead

Many have wondered
How the first heirarchy came
Into social life

I'm no expert, but
With my life, I'd say it was
Due to coconuts

Beware of leaders
Who promise it all, for you
Will end up with *none

Don't tell me of eternity
I doubt I could ever know
For the girl you see before thee
Was raised on touch-and-go

I only know a nomadic way
Of moving from city to city
My four years here will be my longest stay
In my entire life's story

I know that people will go as well
Friendships fade in but two months
Even family grows old, as I can tell
That the same people change under the sun

So don't tell me of forever
In a gated Hollywood paradise
An eternal feast and fanfare
Under great paternal eyes

Don't tell me of eternal voids
A perpetual nonexistence
A world with no light or noise
An eternal nonsensation

Don't tell me of eternal hell
A forever unchanging war
A torment I can not tell
To others whom I care for

Because, Mi amore, I don't need
A stagnant, unchanging world
I just need change, like sand into pearls
Or a woman growing from a girl

You know you're small when
Your sister's friends say "at least
I'm taller than her"

And when your sporty
Friend says "hey, you weigh the same
As my deadlift weight"

And when your parents
Always send your little sis
To reach the top shelf

At the very least
You're never be too big for a
Bed or car backseat

Making your own choice
With something you're scared to do
Is learning to fly

Looking over a ledge
You're nervous, then you're scared once
You start to fall down

Then once you take off
Your breath catches, and you start
To soar in your mind

And for all your fear
Knowing that you've made your choice
Flies over anxiety

Who ever knew that
Wikipedia links could
Only be Plato's

I'm not entirely sure if I'm
More terrfied of swarzchild's radius
The likely end of heat death over the eons of time
Or suspensions of the corpus' habeas

Or perhaps terror lies in false vacums
Or neglected tropical diseases
Or perhaps it lies in refugees being refused
Or with a virus that does as it pleases

But despite the fact that I get
My share of nightmare fodder
Your videos are complex, with layers of thought, yet
They're easily understandable and popular

The work you do is truly amazing
You spread wondrus knowledge through the web
And while you terrify, you're equally inspiring
With all of the points that stick in your head

So to you, Kurgestat, I give a mixed thanks
For though your existentialism can terrify
I love learning, from your words on war to banks
And the way your videos spread like they fly

I brush my hair every morning and night
You'd think, with this bob, it would stay tame
But if I take off a hat or run under a breeze so light
The cute bob turns into a matted lion's mane