Love Story Sestina- Keana M. & Katie M.

October mist blankets the city lights.
In the busy downtown, the mundane hipster
rides his fixed gear bike; on his back rests his guitar.
Off of his lips hangs a lit cigarette.
Thinking about the girl with the thick rimmed glasses,
he replays the first moment she walked into his life.

The girl wonders what he's doing with his life.
Holding back tears as memories, she stares down at the city lights,
longing settles at the bottom of the empty glasses.
He stole her heart at first sight- that young mustached hipster.
Hoping she'll encounter him again, she puts out her cigarette.
She closes her eyes, humming along to the radio's guitar.

As if she were there, he writes songs to her on his guitar.
He knows he needs her in his life
because, without her, he feels like a wet cigarette,
and his heart is beginning to resemble the dimming lights.
He thinks he'll never see her again- that beautiful jaded hipster.
Everywhere he looks he sees her reflection in the glasses.

Night after night, her tears fog up her glasses
because she can't help but think of him every time she hears a guitar.
To her, he is so much more than just a hipster.
She hopes that there's more to her life
then just looking down at the lights.
She pretends he's next to her as she lights her last cigarette.

He rides his bike to the corner store because he's smoked his last cigarette.
As the sun comes up he puts on his glasses
and the world flickers as the lights
turn off and the sun shimmers on his guitar.
He knows he wants more to his life
than just being a pretentious hipster.

The lovely female hipster
walks to the corner store in search of a cigarette.
She can't help but wonder what she is doing with her life.
Still pondering, she adjusts her glasses.
The cherry red wood of a guitar
catches her eye as it reflects the store lights.

Life has a way of coming together,
beyond hipster materialistic matters- a guitar, a cigarette, or glasses,
the lights of love, always allow two people the grace of being together.

How The Lovely Bones has stuck with me

Earlier this week we were asked a number of questions regarding literary merit and one asked which novel has stayed with us and why. Instantly the first piece that popped into my head is the oh-so-popular and magnificent novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I first read the book sophomore year and since then I can't count the number of times I've re-read it. I've now read it enough to know specific lines from it.
Every time I read the book I understand and recognize things I overlooked or did not comprehend during previous reads; it's almost like reading a completely new novel each time I re-read it.
Sebold's mastery of combining darkness, humor, and beauty is powerful enough to express several truths about human nature, including the most frightening parts that we often choose to ignore, pretending our society could never be so evil.
I have become increasingly obsessed with the character or Ruth Connors who is my favorite literary character of any book I've read. Her obsevations on life and death influence not only my writing, but my own thoughts about the true nature or death, the afterlife, the supernatural.
The novel is a journey, a long winding road that Sebold takes her readers down by the hand. Influenced by her own painful rape in her early life, Sebold's searing use of emotion and imagery inflict strong feelings throughout the novel and it's impossible to not feel either happy, terrified, or uncomfortable while reading this disturbing work of literary art.
-Katie M.