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2021 Commencement Poetry Finalists

The Little Figurine
by Katherine Cavazos 

There once was a ballerina

That started out as a boy

Though her body was that of a soldier

She knew she was meant for more


So, every night when her creator slept

She’d change a piece of herself

Swapping boots to ballet flats

Being her own ballerina on her little shelf


But the next morning the creator would wake

And show confusion you see

For how could a soldier be a ballerina?

That’s just not how it was meant to be


So, he would remove the tutu around her waist

And put the rifle back in her hand

Not knowing it would shatter her heart

That her true self couldn’t make a stand


Then one night

The ballerina had tried to leave her shelf

Wanting to find a new home

Wanting to be herself


But she didn’t realize how high she was

Way above the ground

And accidentally lost her footing

Tumbling all the way down


The next day the creator woke

Shocked at what he saw

For how could the little figurine be broken

When it was his best creation of all?


He then decided to start anew

And melt the broken glass down

But as he started on the soldier

He hesitated, then changed his plan


Once the figurine was complete

The creator smiled to himself

Knowing now that the soldier was to be a ballerina

And that’s what she was on her little shelf


***


The World as We Knew It
by Dorian Fitzgerald

The world is a place where dreamers go to get lies filled and truths dismissed.

Cold and hot when it wants to be and alone when you need someone to listen. 

What is the point of growing the life you want on a place that doesn’t seem fit? 

When you think of the planets in the universe, there’s so many you could visit


It would take you at least three to six lifetimes to make one trip


But even though Elon might be close to that journey in search of the unknown 

There is too much left in the air about what the next planet we’ll be able to call home


Do you ever notice the details about the ground you walk on or even those bumps in the roads?


Maybe not until you trip and get hurt or roll over that bump too hard and get your car towed 

How about when you look into the body of the sky?


Do you notice that smoggy air that is being pumped into the atmosphere from a random factory nearby? 

You breathe and breathe that ‘fresh’ air and then cough because the air quality is so dry 

Or do you like to pretend like it was never there in the first place or that you didn’t see


All because it wasn’t trending on social media like Kim and Kanye's divorce in the past week? 

Yeah....Earth is a great place to be


Water that is home to millions of creatures that wash up to the surface because they can't breathe. 

Burning brush of trees that stood confident and strong 

The rush of water to the inferno of a forest that was once quiet and calm. 

Streets becoming trash bins for those who didn’t see the trash can 

Rubbish on top of rubbish in landfills where all those millions you once spent went.


Don’t forget about the gas that keeps going up in price


Driving while killing living things in the environment was never alright.


CO2 causing the ice melts to heat


Polar bears starving because they have nothing else to eat. 

Water and food soon to be ripped from our mouths as well


The longer the soil continues to eroded we will be uncertain of what to do


But who knows, only time can tell.


So those bananas and avocados that you feel are too ugly for your taste


You might want to reconsider just throwing it away. Fossil fuels set this world ablaze 

 But all we can think about is what celebrity tea to talk about today.


Yes. I know, I know, just like you I have made my fair share of mistakes.


From leaving lights on when I know I’ll fall asleep 

To turning up the gas because I’m ‘freezing’.

But these accidents have a high price to pay

And we need to stop and realize before it is too late. 

You all have probably have heard the many ways to save Mother Earth

I used to hear it so much in school I could have gone berserk.


But these are real things we need to do so we don’t end up moving out of Earth soon.


Now that there’s a pandemic life has been turned all the way from upright to upside down


But the environment is still here even if we barely see it now Nonetheless we have to take a genuine vow. 

The world is a place where dreamers go to get lies filled and truths dismissed.

Cold and hot when it wants to be and alone when you need someone to listen. 

However, this world has life growing on it and we still need to love and cherish it. 


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