"Thanksgiving: Bricktown" by Kate Gillen

For my grandpa.

My grandfather held court
around the smoky kitchen table
after dinner, telling us stories of the time
he released snakes into the ladies’ restroom
in the deli where he worked when he was fifteen
(he got fired that day),
or the time he accidentally
fumigated the entire apartment building
in Curries Woods one afternoon,

"To My Husband After Twenty Years" by Janice Jewell

Context:  This was an assignment in which students brainstormed lunch foods, flowers or plants, animals and appliances.  They then had to write a poem using at least five words from each category.  This is mine.

A long life together is 90% washer/dryer and 10% tesla coil.

Chores:

Unload the dishwasher;

Do the laundry;

Clean out the fridge.

On a Friday night: steak to end the week.

"The Price of Too Much Time" by Tom Bombadil

This week's pieces of the week feature our senior tutors, some of whom represent our very first HWC tutors. We wish them the best of luck in all that they do, and especially in their writing!

     Mrs. Ferguson always walked her cat down the street at 8:00 in the morning.  This was a commonly known fact that was not debated by the residents of Ponsly Square.  The little silver bell around her tabby’s neck would softly ring as the lady and her cat ambled down the street.  Often Mrs. Ferguson would stop to admire the different flowers that grew around her neighbor’s house’s white picket fences while her black cat would pull on the leash that connected the two.  Any neighbors that happened to be outside would stop and say hi, though wishing the strange old lady would continue walking.  None of the neighbors knew where Mrs. Ferguson walked to or why her cat needed to be taken outside every day.  Though all were curious, not one person asked the lady.  And so, each day, Mrs. Ferguson and her black tabby wandered from their creaky house at the end of the block, past all the cookie cutter suburban houses, into the vast forest behind the neighborhood.  

"Too Late to Change " by Gatsby

This week's pieces of the week feature our senior tutors, some of whom represent our very first HWC tutors. We wish them the best of luck in all that they do, and especially in their writing!


The dark, heavy night air consumes John,

No lights illuminate his path, yet he continues to walk, lost in thought.

How could she be dead? How could she be gone?

He now understands that love is worth more when it’s not bought.

"A Story" by James Archer

This week's pieces of the week feature our senior tutors, some of whom represent our very first HWC tutors. We wish them the best of luck in all that they do, and especially in their writing!

                The murderer’s knife, metallic and sinister in the full moon, dripped with a crimson shade of blood. She crouched to the ground, budging the weapon from the victim’s body. Police sirens echoed through the cold, silent night. Rain, pouring, washed the blood from the knife and the victim’s body. The murderer carried the body, thrusting it down an opened, then closed, manhole.

"Pride" by Donovan Prestonville

This week's pieces of the week feature our senior tutors, some of whom represent our very first HWC tutors. We wish them the best of luck in all that they do, and especially in their writing!

Some would say I have a big closet, gargantuan even. Some would say I have too much clothing. Some would say I’m a money waster. I say everyone has to have something they’re proud of. That massive, overflowing, expensive closet is my pride and joy. It’s an everlasting symbol of me. My class, my elegance, my style.

"My Favorite City" by Forrest Gump

This week's pieces of the week feature our senior tutors, some of whom represent our very first HWC tutors. We wish them the best of luck in all that they do, and especially in their writing!

My favorite city in whole world, hands down, is definitely the Big Apple, the one and only New York City. Most of my favorite sports teams are also from New York. I have been to New York around forty to fifty times in my lifetime so far. I have traveled to the city a handful amount of times, but always go into Long Island whenever I visit because of family. Everyone on my mother's side of the family lives on Long Island except for my Uncle and Aunt. All of my mother's best friends from when she was younger also lives on Long Island. Whenever we visit, the trip consists of visiting our family and also our extended family which is larger than our actual family, crazy, I know.