Poetry by Grace Tran
they walked in circles for miles
at a time
hoping
that they would somehow
find an end, or perhaps
come across a beginning -
waves of dullness flushing
over them shivering
wondering: why is every
day the same?
shaking the roots of trees ragged stumps
to make the apples
grow faster
withering bones and skin monotony
flesh curling like potato peels
time vanishing before their eyes restless
as they slowly marched forward
leaves falling before them
then disappearing a magic trick
into the winter night -
mindless,
thoughtless,
they walked themselves into the
ground
descending weightless
silent.
Grace Tran has been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and was a 2017/2018 national and “Best of Issue” winner of the American High School Poets “Just Poetry” quarterly contest. She has been both a runner-up and fiction grand prize winner of the Scholastic Kids are Authors contest. She has also had works appear and forthcoming in The Pangolin Review and Polyphony H.S.