As part of a joint effort with the Kings High School Creative Writing and Visual Arts programs, The Knight Times is launching “Creative Corner,” featuring writing and art work from Kings students. Today’s poem is by KHS Junior Briana Stottmann. If you would like to submit your work for publication, contact us.

Life At Home

My home is in the city;
the houses have been vividly lived in,
laughed in,
grieved in.
The paint has faded and chipped,
the flowers out front struggle to find sunlight in the dying garden,
and sometimes there are yellow and purple
tricycles tipped over on the
cracked sidewalk,
abandoned by their fast-waddling
toddlers.
Other times, you can see friends sitting on the front porch steps
of a gracious host’s house,
laughing,

maybe sharing a beer,
passing around the last cigarette
of a dirt-smeared box of
Marlboros.
And if you look out, down the tilted street,
you can see the pulsing heart
of downtown.
The complicated twists and bends
of every road create a structure
similar to veins crossing over bone.
Somewhere in the distance,
if you listen close enough,
is bound to be at least one
rock solid beat following
another guy
rapping about the transformation of
weed from the hood to
good kush in Hollywood.
But, if you’re really wanting
something interesting to think about,
go deeper into a neighborhood,
any neighborhood;
find the yard full of debris
and the rusting 7/11
slouching on the trashed corner.
Sneak over to a
deteriorating fence.
It’s simple wiring will be laced
with who-knows-what.
There will be vines and
those curly brown things that supposedly
grow out of the vines.
There will be a plastic bag
and a Styrofoam Slushee from Speedway
shoved into an open diamond.
But what does that say?
Why would anyone take the time to look at trash
that somehow ended up in a beat up
fence?
Everything says something, but
it says what you make it say.
I say that this is beautiful;
it comforts me to see proof
of people participating in everyday
life.
The trash stuck in a fence,
or stuck in a gutter
all say
“I’ve been here!”
And if that’s not enough,
look down.
If you see blades of grass
shooting out from under the
fence
you’re in the right place.
The little pebbles and rocks that have been kicked
up from the gravel
have all been touched
by little feet
and by size 15 Jordans
and by bike tires.
Now’s your chance,
you can touch that rock.
You can be a part of life at
home.