Scrunched Down Socks and the Man in Them

He's got locks of curly brown hair that shimmer in the sunshine and fly wildly around his face when he drives with the windows down. He's nearly twenty years old, yet, with a twinkle in his brown eyes, he blasts the theme from an old children's television show and sings along at the top of his lungs. In between lines, his chest heaves underneath a blue tee-shirt with pictures of wolves printed on it. His shorts are old and ratty, and slightly shorter than most guy's because his legs are much longer than most guy's. As he taps his foot in rhythm to the music, I notice his socks. They were designed to be pulled halfway up his calves, but he scrunches them all down the way I used to scrunch down my knee socks in grade school. But I am drawn back to that face filled with the vibrancy and joy of a child. He is still singing with his heart and soul, but now to the tunes of Rowlf from the Muppets. In mid-line he laughs that mini-laugh that is a little bit like a cough, a bit like sneeze, yet with all the joy of the longest laugh you have ever laughed. I watch in awe at this man who is still a boy. I watch in amazement at this boy who struggles to never become a man.

By Lauren Pilvelis

Stubborn Mind

The buzzing alarm, waking up from a dream
I open my eyes to the familiar scene

Not quite sure what's really true
Is blue still the color i knew as blue?

My mind tells me one thing when awake
Yet asleep it has a total different take

Should I listen to the logic of the dream?
For all i know the dream is just a scheme

There's a dream I've had for quite some time
But in life it never really came to prime

Even though it never really came close
My dreams still show what bug me most

While asleep I see what could have been, or be
Or just what isn't possible to do with me

I have tried many times, my dreams giving hope
What's odd is I've never been returned a "nope"

Are my dreams fantasizing and to mislead?
Or am I to try till "nope" has been recieved?

Now through the day of work and classes
I sit and see how fast time passes

Dreams turn to reveries, and then to thoughts
My mind spins until an answer is caught

My mind may be stubborn and I guess so am I
But my mind knows it's stubborness and why

Me on the other hand, I don't have a clue
On what my mind and I are supposed to do

Since my dreams are being so persistent, so must I
And I will continue to try

It's ok if the answer comes to be yes, or no
I've tried to the end, my mind and I will know

I guess at first I was too forward and tried to strong
A goal in life could be short or long

As I've tried so hard and wished for more
I hope I didn't push my dream out the door...

I must remember to step back and see
How to equal my patience and persistancy

So much more to say about dreams unknown
But no words come, like birds they have flown

They don't leave forever and fly far away
I'm to wait for the net dream on another day

It could be an old one, or may be new
My mind will be stubborn still, that is true

The past dreams may be past,
But they are not gone from my mind...

They will forever last

Poem by: Derek Mullen