To the Editor,

My name is Mattie Simmons, I’m an eighth-grader who likes to write poetry and I was a friend of Izabella (Asher) Garcia last year and I wrote a poem about their death earlier this week. I was wondering since this Friday is the one-year anniversary of Asher’s passing if I could include the poem in your issue for that day. 

“4-21-22”

With star-studded wings, he flew.

Away he floated,

although,

his body stayed there.

dormant. 

Silence befell the room.

No more did he hear the worries of the world,

for now,

he was above it.

Staring back at the world that had treated him so cruelly. 

He continued to roam,

watching how the world kept spinning without his presence,

seeing how he had no effect upon it.

One heart stopping

leaving many others longing, 

wishing they could go back. 

Although, all they could do was nothing.

Mattie Simmons