Scribe

BROOKLYN FRIENDSMIDDLE SCHOOL2014

ScribeEvery year, the Brooklyn Friends MiddleSchool celebrates writing and the creativearts through the publication of Scribe. Weencourage students in all classes to submittheir writing for publication, and worksfrom every grade are represented. Many ofour seventh and eighth graders submittedtheir work to the Scholastic Writing Awardscompetition; pieces by the students selectedfor recognition are included in Scribe aswell. We encourage all students to continuewriting and creating, and we look forwardto your submissions next year.

We also wish to thank the English facultyfor their continued support of creative writ-ing in and out of the classroom: Mike Roth,Nina Coates-Koncicki, Ticia Vreeland,Tony Soll, Erin Mansur, and Sarah Schlein.

Rachel Mazor, Scribe faculty advisorTina Piccolo, Scribe art advisorBarry Davis, Head of Middle School

Cover: Claire Stohlman, grade 8

Contents

1 Hope is Poem Is Good Enough, Patrick Dote1 Just the First Page, Asca Akiyama *2 e Jergedy Days, Minerva Macarrulla3 e Real Story of Hansel and Gretel, Tessa Marker5 Charlotte Owns Opinions, Annika Heegaard5 Untitled, Annabel Forward **6 Raggedy Man, Maxine Simons7 Why It Snows in Winter, Tyson Boynton8 Who I Am, Jivan Calderone9 “I Am” Poem, Hana Yoshikawa10 Stay, Kali Hough **11 e Place Where the Subway Sleeps, Michaela Guy12 Feelings, Kennedy White13 Witness; Found Poem, Lucy Smith13 As We Walk, Mekai Gilmer14 76: e Diary of Mario Giovanni, Ben Barrett15 Football, Daniel Altschuler *15 ose Woods by the Farm, Daniel Dorticos ***16 Montauk at Sunset, Rowan Ives

*** Gold Key, Scholastic Writing Awards ** Silver Key, Scholastic Writing Awards

* Honorable Mention, Scholastic Writing Awards

Scribe © 2014, Brooklyn Friends School

minerva macarrulla, grade 7

Hope This Poem Is Good Enough

Patrick Dote, grade 7

Just the First Pageinspired bY “this is just to saY”

bY william carlos williams

Asca Akiyama, grade 7

we have all triedwriting on the first pageof a notebookas neatly as we possibly can

but it never lasts

in no timeit’s a total messas we turn the pages

the words get

bigger

Scribe 1

i’m sorry,that i couldn’tput much effort,into my poem.You told me to write,20 to 100 lines,but are my linestoo short?

i promisethat i will trybetter next time,because i havenothing on my mind,right now.

is will bethe only thing that iseffortless,for the year,and my new Year’sresolution would beto make better poems,and hope they aregood enough.

amina washington, grade 7

The Jergedy Daysinspired bY lewis carroll’s “jabberwockY”and e.e. cummings’ “in just”Minerva Macarrulla, grade 7

it was jergedy season,just when all our fellow so-sos were saying,i’ll tell the teacheronyou andour lunch boxes became friends anddo you wanna have a playdate?and look, mommy, no hands!

it was jergedy season,when the days, weeks and monthsseemed to stretch on and on and on,like a piece of our bumblegum pulledto the point where it was about to snap.

it was jergedy season,and life was simple, life was good.although not much was understood,we were happy and free and allat jazz. jergedy season was...

it was our jergedy season.our roles were reversed, as if wewanted to grow up sooner, be...older. if only we had known!en it was first grade, second, then...

a minute seemed quicker, we understood more,an hour, a day, it was all a bore...and suddenly, more than ever before,it wasn’t our jergedy season anymore.

2 Brooklyn Friends School

jabulani chipembere, grade 7

everyone knows the story of hansel andgretel, even you. You probably think this

is the story where two little children are cap-tured by an evil witch – me, beatrice – but it’snot. is is the real story of hansel and gre-tel.

a few years ago, i was looking aer myboss’s house. my boss is the head witch of thecandy mountain region, an area in northwestcolorado. her house is gorgeous and it is en-tirely made out of candy. i wanted to makethe most of my beautiful stay, so i went on awalk. i was out all day, and had a lovely picnicin the woods. as i started walking home ibegan to hear a loud crunching noise. when icame closer to the house, the noise gotlouder, and louder!

i saw two little blond brats eating thehouse! at that moment i started to hyperven-tilate – i remembered what my boss had saidjust before she le to go on a trip, “by the waybeatrice, if even a crumb of my house is gone,you will be on the unemployment list in sec-onds, bye-bye!” once i remembered what acruel boss i had, i ran to the house as fast as icould, which is as fast as a turtle, because i’mone thousand and twenty-seven years old, tostop those little brats from eating the house!“You little blond beasts get away from thehouse,” i screamed. “now!”

“You can’t tell us what to do – tell herhansel!” replied the little blond girl in a verysassy way.

“okay gretel,” groaned hansel. “You can’ttell us what to do, because...we are awesome!”

“we’ll make you a deal, you let us stayhere in this house of treats, and we….we willjust be cute, and do really easy jobs. if youdon’t accept our deal, gretel and i will justdemolish your house.”

when i first heard hansel and gretel’sdeal, i didn’t like it, but then i realized that if

i didn’t accept the deal, those kids would getme in really big trouble.

i replied, “okay, i’ll accept your deal. iwill give you some cake that i made yesterday.in return you will help me make repairs forthe house.”

“okay, but we want the cake now,” de-manded gretel with an annoying attitude.

“whatever you say, my little honey pie,” imuttered sarcastically. “Follow me.” so, ishowed those two little brats into the house. icut up the delicious chocolate truffle cakewith whipped cream, and gave it to those notso lovely children. ey ate the whole cake!but they kept asking for more. i had to takeout all of the extra candy supplies!

aer i gave those brats all my food theywhined, “we want more food.”

The Real Story of Hansel and Gretelby Beatrice S. Witch

Retold by Tessa Marker, grade 5

Scribe 3

rowan ives, grade 7

“i don’t have more food, you ate all of myextra food supplies!” i exclaimed, starting toget stressed out.

“well, you’re a witch, right? You have a bigpointy hat, all witches have big pointy hats.can’t you just conjure up some food?” statedhansel.

“well… it’s harder than that,” i stammered,“i can’t just make food out of thin air, it takestime, and energy!”

“well we don’t care,” replied hansel. “wejust want food.”

i really like using magic, but i’m old, evenfor a witch. when you get older it is hard touse magic. i try to make stuff the human wayas much as possible, no magic. even if i wereto use magic i couldn’t make a cake out ofthin air! i could barely make things out of

thin air when i was young, and i only didthat kind of magic when it was an emer-gency, again, not to make cake! but, i had noother choice, because if i didn’t do whatthose little brats told me to do, i would beunemployed.

i tried to make a cake, but nothing ap-peared out of thin air. i tried again, but stillnothing! i tried, and tried, but i couldn’tmake a cake. i was getting stressed out, andhansel was making so much noise!

“hansel!” i growled through gritted teeth.“go over there to the chicken pen and bequiet! if you don’t, i’m going to have to eatyou!” when i said “eat you” hansel instantlybecame quiet, and ran to the chicken pen.ose children are so gullible.

“come over here gretel!” i demanded.“we’re going to bake some desserts.”

a few hours later gretel and i were donewith the first batch of cookies. i told her togive a few to her brother, so he wouldn’t startcomplaining again. i also told her to get a fireburning in the oven so we could bake repairsfor the house.

a few minutes later gretel came back withcrumbs all over her face and a devious smile.i didn’t want to know why she was smiling soi told her to get in the oven and tell me if shethought it was hot. Five seconds later shewhined, “how am i supposed to get in theoven? can you show me?”

“how hard is it to get in an oven?” ireplied. “but, if it is so hard i’ll show you.” iwalked over to the oven and explained togretel how to get in a oven.

“First, you open the oven door. en youclimb in the oven, ahhhhhhhh! You little ras-cal!” at little brat shut the door on theoven, and i was stuck!

“haha!” yelled gretel. “see ya later witch!” when gretel shut that oven door, i knew

my life was over. my only regret was that ihadn’t killed those two brats, but since i’m awitch, i turned into a ghost, and i lived hap-pily ever aer.

4 Brooklyn Friends School

sage gordon, grade 6

Scribe 5

Charlotte OwnsOpinions

Annika Heegaard, grade 7

e first bloom has comeshowing its luscious redpinkgreensthe hushful street is no longer deadYet neither so redpinkgreenmomanddad say to leave them alone.no.they are all minethey are petals everywhereand momanddad saynobut i sayYes.but charlotteisgoneshe would have wantedthe redpinkgreensbut momanddad say noand i sayYes. and go along thedeadredpinkgreenstreets.

UntitledAnnabel Forward, grade 8

i have layers beneath methat will forever go undiscovered

hidden emotionsin the depth of my soul

they hide because they are afraid

they are afraid of nothing except

themselves

anna polo, grade 7

6 Brooklyn Friends School

Raggedy ManMaxine Simons, grade 7

e raggedy man in the big blue boxfull of mystery

timeand thoughts

he has more than one face13 to be exact,

but this specific facethe one with the little red bow tiethe one with the lively facethe one with stars in his eyes

he is something differenthe is something lighthe is something dark

he has met so many peoplethe girl who waitedthe impossible girl

and the girl who knew so muchhe is the raggedy manhe is the doctorso,

“run you clever boy and remember”

hannah schorr, grade 7

annika heegaard, grade 7

amanda reid, grade 8

Scribe 7

once upon a time, a time in the heavens,there was a sneaky tiger named winter.

winter was a burglar who was planning to sneakinto the golden palace to steal the great king’sgreat treasures.

winter snuck through a golden window intothe grand hallway and slipped through the corri-dors. ey were filled with pieces of art, statues,and tapestries of the great king. winter thoughtto himself, “it will be easier if i poison the greatking so i can sneak in without sounding thealarm!” so he snuck into the royal throne room,filled a glass of water with six drops of poison,and crept quietly out of the room.

when the great king woke up, he reached forhis glass of water. as soon as he drank it, he col-lapsed to the floor, unconscious. one of the royalguards found him and called the doctor. e doc-tor came just in time and poured six drops of an-tidote into a glass of water.

meanwhile, winter found the secret treasureroom behind a golden statue of a three-headeddog. what a sight! ere were mountains of gold,silver, jewels, diamonds, priceless art, and more!winter piled all of the treasure into his magicbag. he was about to sneak out when he heardfootsteps coming down the corridor. winter ranout a window. he hid the treasure far, far away inthe dark pits of sorrow.

when he realized what was lost, the greatking commanded, “i shall send a great army tohunt down this winter! general gebu! You shallleave immediately!”

winter hunted for his dinner. suddenly, a de-licious scent made him he freeze in mid air. whatan amazing smell! e smell of fresh cooked fishand fresh baked rice cakes waed through the air.one part of winter’s brain warned for him to becautious, but his nose betrayed him. he wasabout three feet away when—bam!!! he wascaught in a net! winter screamed and howled offrustration but, it was no use.

back at the great king’s palace, as winterstepped slowly into the throne room, the great

king screamed in outrage at his presence. “howdare you get away with my treasures! i should killyou! now where are mY treasures?”

but the great king could not get the informa-tion out of winter. Finally, winter challenged thegreat king to a game of blackjack. e greatking accepted the challenge and they began thegame. e game was difficult. ey played forhours, and hours, then soon days and soon years.winter almost won but the great king made acomeback.

e great king played the king card. wintercould not stand this attack. e king had won.e great king cried in joy and relief and wintercried in despair.

“now that our little game is finished, let’s re-ward the winner and punish the loser! You, win-ter, shall be turned into the sleeping winter riverin the coldest part of the heavens that has raineddown to the world for as long as time itself! nowbe gone!” so the great king turned winter intothe winter river.

at is why in every cold season, when theweather is right, the winter river falls down onto the earth and creates snow. From that day on,winter has been in peaceful sleep.

Why It Snows in WinterTyson Boynton, grade 5

genta akiYama, grade 5

8 Brooklyn Friends School

Who I AmJivan Calderone, grade 6

i am from a djthe vibration under my feet

from a planea traveling little boy

i am fromthe crashing waves

i am from the hard streeta surfer’s life

the scars on my bodyi am from

the massive mountainsflying downi am from

“don’t do that”a mischievous tween

a tricksteri am from

a stylish momthat turns into a stylish son

i am jivan calderone

daniel dorticos, grade 7

Scribe 9

“I Am” PoemHana Yoshikawa, grade 6

i am hanai look like me

i come from new Yorkmy home is warm and cozy

my family is simple and uniquei feel happy

i know that i am specialwhen people see me they smile and

say “hi”when i see myself i am usually

looking into a mirrori am true to myself

ruthie lipskar, grade 6

i saw him kneelingthe blinding white wallsthe scratchy fabricthe murmuring of equipment

i saw him place one hand in mineas though i were made of fine china

he sighed and slowly closed his eyes

i closed mine and shiedso i was standing right next to him

Glass –that was all I saw as the windows shatteredHe shouted my name as he reached for myhand

He willed me to open my eyesand look at him from the passenger seat

I had just done that a moment ago

the pain i felt that dayruns through him

as if a wire runs from thetips of my fingertips to the handhe was grasping them with

i opened my eyes and he did too

i felt the panic of the flashback slip awayonly to be replaced withemptiness

i saw myself on the hospitalbed

eyes still closed, mind still open

he spun on his heels and slammed his fistinto the white wall

the shelves shook

he trembled with them

at that momenthe cracked

i had to stay for him

or he would shatter just like the windows of his car

StayKali Hough, grade 8

10 Brooklyn Friends School

galen jessop, grade 7

The Place Where the Subway SleepsMichaela Guy, grade 8

big metal caterpillarswheezing, whining on rusty wheels and dirty trackscool poles and shiny silver racks.

squeaking, squealing we all know the sound of those big metal caterpillars coming around.

when day turns to night and we’re all counting sheep.have you ever wonderedwhere the subway sleeps?

perhaps a grand stationis where they all parkto rest their wheels in the cold winter dark.

Scribe 11

Fiona beswick, grade 8

12 Brooklyn Friends School

FeelingsKennedy White, grade 6

a feeling so deep inside mei want to put my hand insideand pull it outori can always just scream letting all the anger and silence outa feeling people arebeing meanjudging youcalling you badgossipingwhat is “bad”?hatredis what i feel right nowi just want to fit in the crowdangersomething i can’t controlmy picFsomeone who comforts mesomeone who is thereFriendship and lovehappinessa feelinghow i feel right now

asca akiYama, grade 7

Witness; Found PoemLucy Smith, grade 8

witness the bloodrun along the field.children pleading for the privilege of joyand allowed no moreto cry. witness how severely he regards his slavessinging. witness the tales, songs, tones, prayers, complaints, testimonies, and notes. witness the woe, bitterness, anguish, depression, and sadness. witness the deepest cruelty of the presence of theblasphemy. witness the determinationof the dead.

Scribe 13

As We WalkMekai Gilmer, grade 7

as we go into battle marching in unity

i wonder

why

we runin the sunfull of flames

maybe i should quit

runjust run

run from the battle

run like a cowardbut stillable to run

ben barrett, grade 8

14 Brooklyn Friends School

76: The Diary of Mario GiovanniBen Barrett, grade 8

1st day in battle:it was horrific. my friends died right in front of my eyes. my squad was ambushed and myclosest friend in the world, antonio deotestro, had his throat slit right in front of my eyes.i was forced to join a new squad along with three men from my old squad and we hopethis squad will be bigger and hopefully more of us will survive. my life will never be thesame. when i think about it, it kind of makes me want to join the dead ones.

2nd day in battle:my new squad is two times bigger but there are many “kids” that are too young to die. isurvived this day, but three of us didn’t, and one of them died a painful, slow death.tonight, i was pondering how i could end the appalling war life i now live in. luckily, iconvinced myself to tough it out and at least try another day.

3rd day in battle: my squad went out into the trenchestoday. e trenches are repugnant andthey are not a place you want to be liv-ing in. e enemy charged at ourtrench and tried to kill all of us. eykilled five men and many were le withinjuries. i was shot on my right leg andwas unable to walk. i got out easy anddidn’t have to participate in any otherparts of the action that were happeningin and around the trench. when wele, we had to run out because we werebeing shot at. when the new groupcame in, i saw many old men beingshot at and killed. war is no way to livea life.

7th day in battle: is is the end. eleven men in mysquad were shot; six of them were shotdown and three died of infection. idon’t want to leave this world in painor because someone else took a niceshot at my face. no. i will leave thisworld in my own hands. ese are myentries, this is my life, and this is mesaying goodbye forever.

oscar dorr, grade 6

Scribe 15

FootballDaniel Altschuler, grade 7

loving a sport is not called for,e mistake of playing itis not right,it is the mistake of not playing

putting a hand on the ball is not the responsibilityit is to pick it up and to run and see the end,it is the courage to continue on, aer you’ve been slammed down

if you fight, e discouraging thoughthits you and haunts foreverso play well and have fun

Those Woods by the FarmDaniel Dorticos, grade 7

me and eddie can do one thingwe can walk through the creepy woodsthe ones that are staggering with moldrotten woods that none could imagine to crossones that deeply display the darkness of lifethe loneliness of somethat don’t understand the worldthat are outsidersthat get rejectedwe can cross that forest and can carry their world on our shoulders.

george boulukos, grade 5

e sky was red but the sun had sete sound of the waves crashinge wind flying past my earsand the rocks moving with the currentwas all i heard

e air had a chillat touched my wet bodyi sat on a rockand stared into the distance

e wind was picking upand the waves became choppythe beach was emptyand the tide was high

my board was packedon the roof of the carbut i was notready to leave

something held me backi wanted to stayjust one more minutestaring into the distance

16 Brooklyn Friends School

Montauk at SunsetRowan Ives, grade 7

anthonYhohn

grade 8

Brooklyn Friends SchoolMission Statement

Guided by the Quaker belief that there is a Divine Light in everyone, Brooklyn FriendsSchool cultivates an intellectually ambitious and diverse community that celebrateseach individual’s gifts. We challenge our students to value and embrace difference asthey develop critical thinking skills and apply their knowledge and intelligence both inand out of the classroom. In this rich learning environment, we inspire all members ofour community to voice their convictions, to discover and pursue their passions, and toseek truth. Our graduates are compassionate, curious, and confident global citizenswho let their lives speak in the spirit of leadership and service.

joyfreund grade 8

BROOKLYN FRIENDS SCHOOL375 Pearl Street

Brooklyn, New York 11201

718.852.1029www.brooklynfriends.org

kalihough grade 8