This isn't just the mix of ketchup and mayonnaise.

It is exactly 1/3 mayo and 2/3 of ketchup

the perfect shade of blush pink

It is eaten with everything-french fries, meatloaf, fish, chicken

It is 3 year old me going to a restaurant and asking for sauce but being disappointed when they don't bring out pink sauce

It is my baby sister going to the bathroom on a train and seeing an "SOS" button

carefully sounding it out

and reporting back that there is a sauce button in the bathroom.

This is the sauce that makes everything better with the color pink and fish sticks

My friends and I shuffled into the bathroom door in our white dresses and clicking heels. We reapplied blush and lipstick, flipped our hair, and double checked there was no food in our teeth. This little 3 toilet, black and white tiled bathroom pretty much summed up my middle school experience. I was a regular early arriver to school and so was my best friend. Instead of sitting in the middle school commons, awkwardly sitting on the hard floor for thirty minutes, we slipped into this bathroom. We gossiped and giggled and took mirror selfies in our uniforms. Somehow, we never got caught. Every year before picture day, we would run into the bathroom and brush our hair and put on our mascara. Every day during the frigid winter, we hid inside this bathroom during our two breaks so we didn't go have to go outside. A teacher stood right outside this bathroom patrolling the hallway and making sure everyone was outside. If anyone came inside, we took our places-2 people in the stalls and 2 people washing their hands. I was always at the left sink. We definitely got caught here. On bad days, we would hide our phones in our sweaters and run to this bathroom to call our moms to pick us up. And occasionally, we would steal a donut from the teachers lounge and eat it together inside a stall, powdered sugar covering the floor. Today was our last day in this bathroom. We were finally graduating to highschool. Everyone would split off and we might never see each other again. There might be another bathroom, but it will never be the same 3 toilet, black and white tiled bathroom with powdered sugar on the floor.

I came from that steel city

that 446 bridges city

that 30 sky scrapers city

That famous Point State Park city

I came from that little neighborhood

The daily rides on the little red incline

the daily slides on the big blue slide

the daily visits to have matzo ball soup

I came from that perfect house

with the red and white room

with the scary laundry shoot

with the little sister sleeping

I grew from that two-year-old girl

who loved reading upside down orthopedic books

who loved tutus

who loved sesame street

To that girl who loved reading right side up books

who loved Steelers games

who loved art

who loved her sweet sister

who loved her tomboy self

I came from Mr. Roger’s neighborhood

From Squirrel Hill

From Pittsburgh

From Pensilvania.

I am Sam

Yes I am

Green eggs and ham

I know this will give you a laugh

and you won't pick this funny path

to win

but as I am only here

not for mere win

but for making for glee

in this uncheery

flee!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I hope everyone has a terrific day and summer! Stay safe and healthy! Be kind!

First comes life

A new leaf

a fresh start

turning and twisting

gyrating and swirling

swishing and spinning

as the only thing you can cling onto is hope

problems swelling

like a pink bubble gum

smaller

then bigger

then they Pop!

Then something happens when the world comes to an end

a new lifetime

yet for enternity

another leaf

with no end

with no start

having a life but no heart

they could be souls

spirits

or gouls

or new people

or angles

but all that we have desided is...

interity is after the life of the earthlings

either a circle of lives

or a new way

yet it continues

on.....

and on.........

and on.................

black

empty

despairing

controlling

uncontrolling

zilch

zero

nada

none

open

swallowing

here

is the

poeming

Nothingness

Just a small dose

It's cool and fresh on your lips

and I have that feeling of dansing in the moonlight etched onto the grass

Nothingness

The pleaser to your pleasures

the dew drops withing raindrops

the sharp smell of pine needles

and baked cookies

Nothingness

A black whole

of somethingness

of pride

Gone

dispare

hopeless

meaningless

my life is just meaningless

she is not coming back

no use of going on

I might as well stop trying...

and walk off a cliff

I want one thing

to see her

to let her hold me

to let her say, I love you

to have her tuck me in bed for just one more night

she is gone and not coming back