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      • How Animal Farm by George Orwell Still Speaks Today
      • How To Train Your Hyper-Realistic Live Action Reboot
      • Absense of August
      • Art fight Collection
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      • The Overconsumption Cycle
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      • The Black Phone 2: More is Less
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      • Deathbott Chapter 5
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      • Blood-Covered "Love"
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      • I, Who Have Worn Many Faces
      • And I Wonder (Kanye West)
      • Danganronpa Trial 3's: They Suck
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      • YOLO OR YËAT
      • It's time to start indulging
      • Anybody can be Spider-Man
      • Arrow Through The Chest
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      • Dear Jane Doe
      • Invisible Thread
      • What Could I Be
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      • Invisible
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      • If He Loved Me
      • The Pain That I Love
      • Love is Not For People Like Me
      • ULTRAKILL (Media Review)
      • Firebreak
      • Penny
      • Deathbott Chapter 7
      • 5 Misconceptions of Islam
      • Is Love Childish?

sunflower
​

jahzara gates, february 2026

Sitting atop a sunflower
Is a girl with long hair
And months-old boots.

I ask the girl, “How’s it like?”
She responds with a thumbs-up and a smile
And claims the view is beautiful

A girl only exposed to a world without presents
Won’t know that she’s missing out on
Christmas Day.

The sunflower reflects brown light.
“Hey, girl, did you know your sunflower is wilted?”
She turns to me, bewildered.

I am sitting atop a sunflower
With medium-length hair
And years-old boots.

“How’s it like?”
I turn to see a woman who looks familiar.


jahzara gates

Picture

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  • Home
  • Meet Us
  • This Month
    • BALM Radio >
      • September 2025
      • October 2025
      • November 2025
      • February 2026
      • March 2026
      • April 2026
    • Op-Eds >
      • Stay Skinny!
      • Stranger Things: Kill Your OCs
      • "Does He Know?": Do YOU Know Why Paul Dano Is So Great?
      • Creator vs. Creation: Mothers, Daughters, & The Generational Divide
      • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: How Snow Really Falls
      • Know Your Rights: What To Do Around Ice
    • CREATIVE WRITING >
      • Impermanence
      • Am I not American Enough?
      • The Moonlight Behind The Blinds
      • Acceptance Letter
      • I WIsh I was Your Son
      • Due East
      • Once For The Moon
      • turn off the lights, close your eyes, and pretend i'm a real boy
      • Broken Nail
      • Midnight Confessions
      • The Pencil In My Hand Does Not Move
      • Chloropromazine Chapter 1
      • One
    • Cooking Corner
    • Artist Corner
    • Media Reviews >
      • TV SHOW REVIEW: Beastars
      • MOVIE REVIEW: Spider-Man: Brand New Day
      • SONG REVIEW: "Lover, You Should’ve Come Over"
    • Sports Panel >
      • Boys Swim: Senior Highlight
      • Girls Swim: Senior Highlight
      • Girls Basketball: Senior Highlight
  • Featured Article
    • I'm Not Cute Anymore: The Adultification of Black Girls
  • Teacher's Corner
    • Teachers Corner: DeVaul
    • Teachers Corner: Ejzak: How to Combat chatGPT? Embrace the Same Anti-Authoritarian Teaching Practices We Should’ve Been Doing All Along
    • Teacher's Corner: Mr. Hazzard's Love Letter To Brooks
    • Teacher's Corner: Gordon
    • Teacher's Corner: Wilde
    • Teacher's Corner: David
    • Teacher's Corner: Ejzak
    • Teacher's Corner: Rago
  • Archive
    • 9.25 >
      • Two
      • Young and Pretty
      • Chimeras: Growing Up in Majority-White and Majority-Black Schools
      • My Favorite Color Used To Be Pink
      • Good Mother
      • Cancel the Mouse: Why New Disney Sucks
      • Is Hope the New Punk Rock?: Superman Movie Review
    • 10.25 >
      • Ignorance Is PURE Bliss
      • The Subjectivity of Creativity: How Wrongful Interpretation is Dangerous
      • Petty Games
      • If You're So Wise, Why Do You Come Off So Passionless?
      • How Animal Farm by George Orwell Still Speaks Today
      • How To Train Your Hyper-Realistic Live Action Reboot
      • Absense of August
      • Art fight Collection
    • 11.25 >
      • The Overconsumption Cycle
      • My Experience Being Painfully Insecure.
      • An Age-Old Question
      • They Hate Us Cause They Ain't Us
      • Transgressions Against the Father
      • Watership Down
      • The Black Phone 2: More is Less
      • How Fish Became Gods
    • 1.26 >
      • The Concept of One Individual
      • Deathbot Chapter 3 Part 1
      • Deathbot Chapter 3 Part 2
      • Deathbot Chapter 4
      • Police & Black Americans—The Battle for Civil Rights
      • White Hair Braiders
      • The Dust Under My Bed
      • Popular (Wicked)
      • “Carpe Diem, Seize The Day.” - A Media Review On Dead Poets Society
      • They Could've Made Anything, but They Chose This Book
    • 2.26 >
      • The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love
      • Deathbott Chapter 5
      • Is it Possible to Separate Art From the Artist?
      • Take Things Seriously
      • Blood-Covered "Love"
      • Sunflower
      • Iron Lung Review
      • Night In the Woods Analysis: The Hole At The Center Of Everything
    • 3.26 >
      • My Beautiful Spring
      • I, Who Have Worn Many Faces
      • And I Wonder (Kanye West)
      • Danganronpa Trial 3's: They Suck
      • Deathbott Chapter 6
      • YOLO OR YËAT
      • It's time to start indulging
      • Anybody can be Spider-Man
      • Arrow Through The Chest
      • Creativity Is A Burden On The Creative
      • Dear Jane Doe
      • Invisible Thread
      • What Could I Be
      • Ramadan
      • Weather Boy
    • 4.26 >
      • Invisible
      • Strength in Words
      • If He Loved Me
      • The Pain That I Love
      • Love is Not For People Like Me
      • ULTRAKILL (Media Review)
      • Firebreak
      • Penny
      • Deathbott Chapter 7
      • 5 Misconceptions of Islam
      • Is Love Childish?