"Casio 1301 MTA-4000" by Agniv Sarkar

Last night I was locked in my father’s watch,
hidden away in a dark drawer,
counting blind.
The timer started to roll over as soon as
its hands began to approach the hour.

I woke up from the dream,
sickly sweat under the watch.
It was scared of its half-truths,
from analog to digital,
from form to function.

Once, time slipped from my grasp,
but still it clung to me.
The watch was old and it kept
the old time, so it felt heavy on the hand.
Without it, the lightness felt dizzying,
the time lost.

As soon as I could, I reclaimed the time
I aimed to make it mine.
And those who saw it paused.
Gave it more than a seconds thought (the watch knew),
and it had moved on from being my father’s.

Agniv Sarkar is a student of mathematics and philosophy, leaving high school early to further these pursuits. He found poetry through philosophy and found the intersection of the two able to create the most beautiful artwork.

"Sunset Feathers" by Katie McHugh

The setting sun, iridescent gold, flaunts its tail like a peacock, and we, like peahens, bow our heads in praise. Choose me, we plead with wide eyes and pale feathers. Come back tomorrow.

But the sky grows darker still, and soon, the day is an echo of birdsong on the horizon, lost in the spinning of the world.

Katie McHugh is a writer from Long Island, NY. She is the recipient of Boston University's Florence Engel Randall Award.