Students were asked to write a poem about either an important place, themselves, or any topic for which they had felt a strong connection. We had some amazing submissions.

Jiu Jitsu

By Maryam Hasaan

The mats beaten and blood soaked,

During the day it’s as silent as the dead,

When night hits sound is booming,

Bodies slamming and hitting the ground,

People screaming,

Bodies flying,

Sweat pouring,

Blood dripping,

Snap, crackle and pop is the code we live by,

At night you hear sounds of slamming,

During the day the sound of silence,

These mats have been scarred and beaten,

By peoples bodies hitting it at high speeds and great heights,

These mats have heard sounds of pain and victory,

Felt the shock of slamming and dropping from an advanced throw set,

As the night grows so do the sounds of slamming bodies,

As the senior grades enter their katar,

Bodies fly further,

The sounds get louder,

The throws get deadlier,

As the night grows so does the level of violence in these mats,

The weapons come out to play,

And the moves get more advanced and complicated,

Koshes start hitting skulls,

And bokens start to chop at your head,

The less they move the more blood there is,

Move, move, move that's the number 1 rule

If you can’t move you won’t survive,

Once the clock strikes 9,

The sounds of violence end,

The bodies stop dropping,

The screams sece,

And the silence seeps in,

And the mats wait in silence for one whole week,

too feel the shock of bodies again.

The Siren who bled

By Maryam Hasaan

A cold-warm* pillow embraces me

My lungs sit still while my heart races

The call grows deeper as I fall weaker

Is she coming? I wonder

After all these years

Is she the one?

To fulfil the missing piece

From the chaos, my world has become

I have lost the sense of touch and taste

The pillow seems to be getting colder

My warmth disappearing below my waist

But the heat building above my shoulder*

Am I even human?

I feel light as a feather

But tight as leather

I feel lost but free

As if thousands of bricks have been lifted off me

What is that sound?

My body naturally follows its call

Her call is loud

As if she if it’s wanting to be found

At least down here

I’m far from the gods above

The gods That have failed me

Let me bleed while they rose to victory

The gods, all bend knees for

They sacrifice their lives for

I used to strive to please

The God they used to adore

Until they abandoned me

Is this their plan?

Is this my fate

Is this God’s will

Is this what I’ve been waiting for

Am I never going to be saved?

This misty cloud

Where I lay

Makes a new world

Far from reality

At last away from the world I know

I begin to slowly rest

The woman's song on repeat in my head

my mind finally slows down to rest

In my moment of comfort

I couldn’t feel the sharp bronze knife

That grazed over my skin

Allowing the liquid to ooze out of me

To steal another lonely life*

A scream pierced the bitter black beautiful* night

As the mist slowly started to clear out

Soon I was able to see what it was from

The siren who bled, beside me

Mountain bike

Mountain bike, mountain bike

Getting out and going for a ride,

Speeding past the trees

The crunch of sticks snapping underneath you

Grip hard in descents,

Mountain bike, mountain bike

Breeze splashing on your face

Giving you a welcome to the trail,

Suspension clapping

On a hard rocky surface

Going around the berm

With flow,

Mountain bike, mountain bike

The sound of rocks

Crumbling under your tires,

Sound of chain

Smacking your frame

While descending down

A steep rocky surface,

Preparing for a jump

Reposition your feet

Tensing your body

For the worse,

Then in the matter of seconds,

A rattle racers up your body on impact

With a joy of excitement

Of completion

But also looking back

Wondering if there's a flat rear tire

Mountain bike, mountain bike

School is fun

But the trails are begging,

Just waiting to get ridden,

Thinking about the flow

And the technical parts of a trail

Mountain Bike, Mountain Bike

Then in the matter of seconds,

A rattle racers up your body on impact

With a joy of excitement

Of completion

But also looking back

Wondering if there's a flat rear tire

Mountain bike, mountain bike

School is fun

But the the trails are begging,

Just waiting to get ridden,

Thinking about the flow

And the technical parts of a trail

Mountain Bike, Mountain Bike

KHS News

Issue 3 · 31 Dec 2020

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