Congratulations to Julia Foy, Laurie Juusola, Reanna Marthaler, Avery Resner, and Peyton Resner who all received Minnesota Scholastic writing awards. Peyton Resner also received a gold key for her writing Portfolio and an American Visions & Voices Medal. The 2018 Awards Ceremony hosted by the Minnesota Writing Project will take place on Saturday, May 5th, 2018, 10 am – 11 am, at the Roseville Ramsey County Library.
Five works, from across all categories and grades, are selected from those earning Gold Keys as the “Best-of-Show” for each local program as nominees for the American Visions & Voices Medals.
Peyton Resner’s Gold Key and American Visions & Voices Nominee poem:
moldy peaches, three tylenol, and a black leather belt
it sits warm and sloppy on my chest like a moldy peach weighing down and breaking ribs filling my lungs with fluid like pneumonia in january would, with all of its fiery pangs deep in my chest and sweat like peach juice dripping down my spine but it would never kill me like pneumonia might.
(just the right amount to let me hyperventilate over a text message and a few words said but never enough to kill me)
it crowds up on my head and has me take three tylenol (1,2,3!) to stop the pounding behind my eyelids and the quickness of my heartbeat against my sternum like my heart will beat out of its cage with the intensity of its rhythm it would never kill me like a heart attack might.
(the exact amount to shake my hands and rattle my bones but never enough to kill me)
it ropes a black leather belt around my diaphragm, squeezing all my breath out and replacing it with constricted sobs and wheezing air and a recently developed stutter choking me with the cold vice grip of a hand knowing too much would, stamping me out like a cold woman destroys a wilting flower but It would never kill me like being strangled might.
(the precise amount of nerve endings in my body doubles and my back seizes and my body is filled with fatigue afterwards but never enough to kill me)
((this is a panic attack))
STMA HS ART Department 