The Write Stuff

We’ve come to the conclusion that Inland Northwest teens are prolific.

In the past six months we have received more than 100 poems and short stories for Writer’s Block, a feature you occasionally see in Our Generation, showing off the creative side of teens.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to publish all the submissions, but we’re devoting part of today’s page to several of them.

Shoo fly don’t bother me! By Jennifer Lister

House flies are really important when you think about it. I mean if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have anyone to suck up with my vacuum or swat with a pink floral fly swatter. If it weren’t for house flies I wouldn’t have any one to take my anger out on. I mean I could become a cereal killer or something. So on behalf of the whole house-fly family I would like to say thanks. Thanks for letting me suck them up with my Hoover Steam Vacuum 2000 like stars being engulfed by a black hole, and most of all thanks for having so damn many children.

Chicken Soup By Sarah Parker

Her mousy brown hair fell softly down on her shoulders like snow on a crisp December morning. With a scarf pulled tightly around Dawn’s neck she quickened her stride to Reilly’s bakery on the corner of Main and Fourth. She closed her brown puppy dog eyes for an instant to block them from the howling wind and ran smack right into a tall businessman.

“Oh, excuse me,” Dawn said softly. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t… I don’t… Are you O.K.?”

“I’m fine” interrupted the man with a smile.

“Good” she replied, a small smile pulling at her pink lips. “Do you need help” Down asked noticing the books and bags the man was picking up from the sidewalk.

“No, no thank you” the man said, “Where are you headed?” he asked realizing how cold she looked.

“Reilly’s”

“Well get yourself a warm bowl of soup” he said as he dashed across the busy intersection.

“What a nice man,” Dawn thought as she entered the doors of Reilly’s and sat down in her usual corner table. She didn’t even glance at the menu as she ordered a cup of chicken soup.

The Hell of Summer By Jason Dixon

It was hot, so hot the soles of my shoes became gummy against the split concrete. The dust in the hot wind pestered me like a million mosquitoes. The blurred heat over the highway appeared as a cool lake until my comforting image was crushed by a passing semi. Then when I sat on the black vinyl seat, my bare thighs painfully went red and numb. The steel belt remained tossed into the passenger seat for I knew contact would mean instantaneous blistering of my hands. Pulling the cardboard sun visor from the window I could feel the air become even hotter. Feeling as if I’d just jumped into an oven, I quickly escaped the life-threatening enclosure.

The Stereotype By Barry Nordendale

Going down the street

Push off with my feet.

Drift off to the side

Bust out a phatty wall ride.

Kickflip down the slope

Smoke some phatty dope.

Look at the dumb Rollerblader

Kick his ass and say “See you later!”

Look out for that cop

Drink some of that bum’s secret pop.

The fun will never end

Meet up with a friend.

Scream, howl, and say yippy

Take some triple dip LSD.

The cops are up ahead

Go the other way instead.

The cops start shooting at us

We quickly hijack a bus.

We get back to my house

And sneak in like a mouse.

Slip in past my mom

This trip has been a bomb.

I look outside and there’s no cops in sight

Everything’s going to be all right.

Baths are a Waste of Money By Andrew Gersh

I am a fairly simple person. I don’t kneed wild expensive clothes that make me look like a fool. I also do not need items from a bathroom beauty shop. When I take a bath (rarely) or a shower (religiously) the last thing I need is to step out of the bath or shower smelling worse than I did before because some fool decided to put some smelling oil in a ball to melt in the water. Those to me are a complete waste of money. And all this lotion everyone is buying; everyone is going for a “natural” smell. Natural is not smelling like a peach grove or an apple orchard. That is smelling like an overly priced fruit. Natural smelling is smelling like yourself. No one was brought into this world smelling like freesia ball oil or peach lotion unless your parents were freesia plants or peaches, which I assume is highly unlikely. Everyone came into this world smelling like crap, probably because your parents smelled like crap. I know you’re saying, “Hey man, My parents did not smell.” I say whoever lived during the free spirit and free odor days of the sixties smelled and still does, kind of like my parents, but they cover it up with lotion, preferably peach. In other words, humans stink…naturally.

Woman By Kaitlan Monroe

You came back

After all this

Time

And expected to find a

Child

But you were surprised

And disappointed

I think

To find that everything had

Changed

You wanted someone

To love

To guide

Someone to love you back

Unconditionally

But what you didn’t realize

is that now I am a

Woman

A Woman with

thoughts

feelings

conditions

And even if you won’t

Or can’t be

I am proud of this

Woman