The Craig Criterion is proud to present the Creative Corner, where students can submit poetry, short stories, prose, and more. This is the first installment of a new series of articles focused on student poetry. Each week, we will select 5 submissions and present them and crown a favorite poem for the week. 

This week’s staff choice is “insatiable” by Ava Burner. It is a beautifully descriptive work that takes the reader through the inner thoughts of a turbulent relationship. It is wonderfully relatable and emotionally evocative, creating an involved interest as the poem develops. Simply a great work of art.  

#1 insatiable

Name: Ava Burner  

Date Submitted: 11/03/22

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insatiable 

“are you angry with me?” 

i asked her. 

and then i ponder, i am always angry. 

i am a crystal blue and clementine orange butterfly with abrupt wings- i fly angrily. 

i question peoples words, i over analyze and forget to sympathize.

i am a journal with black pen scribbles that are hard to read, but my face is the opposite. 

my face is easy to read. 

i am transparent. 

i am an hour glass constantly tipped and persuaded. 

everyone watches my grainy thoughts glide down my throat; 

i keep my heaviest broodings in my chest. 

don’t you know, i am always a form of angry? 

if i am angry she must be too. 

how could she not have a red face 

when she’s intertwined with a woman so rudely inclined to spill her mind? 

i am a leakage. 

i am a spiraling fountain wishing for coins in my hands. 

i am greedy and selfish. 

i am quiet. 

i am, well, nothing short of everything. 

is she as well? 

is she, a little bit, of simply nothing? 

are we overfilling empty conversations with romantic faces? 

i think we are. 

i think we are the perfect balance of angry and content. 

we are syrupy sweet mixed with kerosene. 

we are a little bit of everything. 

#2 seasonal affective disorder

Name: Ava Burner  

Date Submitted: 11/03/22

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seasonal affective disorder

i closed my eyes and leapt into the burning sun, 

i walked out with a crimson aching rush. 

is it madness, is it love? 

to self deprecate and reiterate, 

wishing i could rewrite my own mirror; 

and unscrew my funny faces, so i can see them clearer? 

my body doesn’t feel like mine. 

with two hands that can’t tell time, 

am i worthless? 

or only in my eyes? 

i’m dripping Picasso blue. 

i’ve lost my twilight under the full moon. 

may i dive in again? 

swim through the magma rays? 

may i feel the sun again? 

i’ve lost myself to the way i behave. 

i am a daughter of the sun, 

a sunflower that will not bloom 

until daylight savings has begun. 

i am a cursed child of dark and gloom. 

i am an innocent praying for warmth 

in the unbearable cold. 

i am to be reformed 

until my skin tastes like gold.

#3 Lifeboat for two 

Name: Zacrye Crowe  

Date Submitted: 11/03/22

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Lifeboat 

Im trapped on a lifeboat made for two 

Surrounded by broken wreckage askew 

Of a failed generation’s ambition

or really bore from god knows where 

And I dont think anyone else cares 

About the damned here

Thunder and lightning splits the sky 

outlining those yet to die 

Unfortunates found out, ground out 

pound out, or otherwise spat out 

Drifting, drowning: suffering and high 

And I dont think anyone else cares 

about the damned here 

Somehow I persist 

among pessemistic mist 

Thrown over my coat 

Straining my eyes, choking my throat 

-And yet through the tears 

Cried through experienced years 

I grab on storm swept hull and hold 

Maybing thinking I can save one from the cold 

And I dont think anyone else 

cares about the damned here

Im just a fool, but I do 

Not set; I cast my line 

I throw my net 

Flurries pass by 

Missed opportunities, full regret 

The storm surges and hurls 

The line pulls 

And pulls 

And pulls 

And pulls 

And then the line catches 

One by one 

Seemingly every child under the sun 

Thrashing, not knowing they’ve won 

A ticket, maybe out of this place 

Maybe only if they knew they could be safe 

Upon this raft, we can both be trapped 

And then I throw my head back 

With the winds, pushing facts 

Of maleficent whispers to my ears 

And forcing the air out of my chest 

Pushing the beating heart from my breast 

Forcing me to realize, against my every wish 

Im in a lifeboat for two 

—

#4 Sinking Sea

Name: Gabriella Elliot 

Date Submitted: 11/02/22

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Sinking Sea

The deep feeling in your gut when you know 

something’s wrong and you don’t want to

admit it

Your adam’s apple bobbing to hold back tears

The feeling of tears ready to spill from your tired eyes

The feeling of emptiness

The feeling of falling into a deep cold abyss 

of obsidian black and never wanting to 

resurface for air

That pressure on your lungs needing air, but

liking the pain so you keep swimming 

deeper into the dark trenches of the water

The life slowly slipping away like the boeys

of pieces of your broken heart

Now it’s not even swimming deeper, it’s the 

feeling of sinking

The fearful aura surrounding when wanting air

But you’re stuck

You can’t get up

No matter how hard you try

The pressure in your chest is almost to a breaking point

Dying slowly

No one and nothing to save you

No hands to pull you up and give you CPR

Maybe many tries but ended as failures

That feeling

That one feeling is depression

That feeling cuts deep into you and makes a home

It’s a mind controller

It kills you from the inside out

It makes you think, feel, and do the wrong things

The only hope is that someone will come 

save you or you’ll finally stop sinking

Maybe even find the strength to keep swimming up

But suicide and hurting yourself is not the answer

The answer

Well you’ll never know till you try

Don’t give up

You’re beautiful

Even the broken pieces

— 

#5 Refrigerator  

Name: Ezra Halloway   

Date Submitted: 11/02/22 

Refrigerator 

Refrigerator

This Haiku is very dumb

refrigerator

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