Cassidy Ransom

The following poem by Cassidy Ransom, born 1994, was first published in Stepping Sideways Into Poetry Writing (Scholastic Inc. 2005), and is reproduced here with kind permission of the author and the publisher.  Cassidy has also been named Poet Laureate of her school.   

Three new poems written in 2007 follow below.

THE CREAKY LEAF 

Crunching when people
Step on you,
Tattering under their feet,
You rip.

In spring when you are green,
You smell like spinach.
In the fall, you smell like
   maple syrup
Spinning onto my waffles.

Your body is a light brown,
With a tint of dark speckles.
Ripped, you can see
Right through your body.

Damp, just a wee bit,
Your body feels like leather.
You veins feel like stems.

Dark spots
Feeling like velvet.
Your edges
Like razor blades.

                 Cassidy Ransom

New Poems 2007

BLACK

The color is dark
Darker than ink
Everyone sees it
Even the blind
To some the color
Is safe
To others
It is a
Drowning thought
Of fear
But this color
Can be whatever
You want it to be
Good and Bad
Safe and Dangerous
But it's not just
A color
It's an emotion
That runs through
My broken heart

ANGER

It grows inside me
Every day
Especially when
I see the color
Red
Sins usually
Rise from
This emotion
Of which
I feel every day
Parents yelling at you
Younger sibs
Stealing your stuff
Greed and envy
Run with this emotion
The emotion that
Sets a black flame
To my heart

DEPRESSION

My heart is a black hole
Drowning me in its depths
The misery is endless
Like the night sky
Emotions of sadness and anger
Run inside my black heart
Darkness overcomes me
As blood does to my precious flesh
But sadly you don't understand
So I'll just say it simply
        Depression