{"id":3099,"date":"2022-10-04T20:38:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T20:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=3099"},"modified":"2022-10-12T17:52:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T17:52:20","slug":"two-poems-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-3-winter-2022-23\/two-poems-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Emilyn Polanco<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Ode to Ginger Ale<\/strong><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sparkling sweet acid
\nsoothes my ailed throat
\nupstairs in my room on New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n

The adults really miss out
\nwhen they overlook you
\nin favor of Bacardi and bourbon.<\/p>\n

Your golden saccharine burn
\nputs a pep in my step more than Pepsi
\never could, asking \u201cCoca Cola who?\u201d.<\/p>\n

You dazzled me at every cousin\u2019s neighbor\u2019s dog\u2019s event,
\ncooling me as I hid under the table
\nat every get-together I was ever dragged to.<\/p>\n

Schweppes, Canada Dry,
\nsure enough each branded can had
\nthe same brassy dye.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m more of a sprite kind of gal now,
\nand I don\u2019t stay holed up in my room
\nor hide under tables anymore.<\/p>\n

But your ginger root taste
\nbrings me back to when Party Rock
\nand Gangnam style blared in my head.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Jefferson Elementary School<\/strong><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Clay colored concrete bricks,<\/p>\n

and an orange rubber ground that skinned my knees.<\/p>\n

It peeled my hands,<\/p>\n

at least I thought it would.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Floors 2-4 were always bummers<\/p>\n

but the first floor had music<\/p>\n

pouring into delicious speedboat pizza.<\/p>\n

We would motor on outside<\/p>\n

to the primary-colored playground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were warriors there,<\/p>\n

carefully balancing over the molten clay,<\/p>\n

the heat singeing our navy skirts.<\/p>\n

Diana was super tall, so she always survived.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were leaders of the fall leaves,<\/p>\n

at least I was.<\/p>\n

Dancing with my subjects,<\/p>\n

careful not to crush them into autumn confetti.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heading inside, I would drag my sketcher\u2019s<\/p>\n

(same ones, day in and day out)<\/p>\n

on the coiled Brillo-like carpet<\/p>\n

in front of the main office.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Squish and squeak past Mr. Colleta<\/p>\n

always in a red hoodie,<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to be late,<\/p>\n

I need to hurry!\u201d into the stairwell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It took forever to get to class.<\/p>\n

So many stairs, with slick motor oil railings.<\/p>\n

Waves of rubber and vinyl bouncing off<\/p>\n

the desolate staircases.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019d wheeze past the middle floors.<\/p>\n

Their bathrooms were always empty of chatter.<\/p>\n

There was no ambiance, just the absence<\/p>\n

of sound.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I finally made it to the top.<\/p>\n

Shaking the goosebumps off my spine,<\/p>\n

I’d patter into class,<\/p>\n

everyone sitting criss cross applesauce<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

on the scruffy royal blue carpet.<\/p>\n

It was for ghost stories, for escaping<\/p>\n

with \u201cScary Stories to Tell in the Dark\u201d,<\/p>\n

for spacing out and plunging into the deep.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Driving past it now, it was bigger then,<\/p>\n

with Jose, Tamara, Eduardo, and everyone else.<\/p>\n

The trees still tower, the stairwells still echo I\u2019m sure,<\/p>\n

the bench we all made is still there,<\/p>\n

even if we aren\u2019t\u2026I wonder if they miss it here too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Emilyn Polanco<\/strong> is a public health major from Piscataway, NJ, class of 2024, who really enjoys writing. She sees writing as a nice way to express herself. She suspects that, because she uses writing as an emotional outlet, her writing sounds exactly like how she talks. She likes to make the reader feel like she is telling them a story or having them experience a memory of hers. These poems are more focused around her childhood and that feeling of being small, thinking $10 is a huge amount of money, and not knowing how to tie shoes quite yet. So, to whoever reads these poems, she hopes you liked that blast from the past!<\/p>\n

These poems were written in a creative writing course taught by Professor Joanna Fuhrman, who selected the pieces for publication in WHR.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emilyn Polanco   Ode to Ginger Ale   Sparkling sweet acid soothes my ailed throat upstairs in my room on New Year’s Eve. The adults really miss out when they … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":0,"parent":2693,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3099","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Poems - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-3-winter-2022-23\/two-poems-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Poems - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Emilyn Polanco   Ode to Ginger Ale   Sparkling sweet acid soothes my ailed throat upstairs in my room on New Year’s Eve. 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