Dunbar’s Poet Laureate Tradition

We've taken our final steps through the glass around hallways down secret staircases We've peered through the windows of the elevator, looking as we rise and fall for a final time. As we prepare for what stands before us, Raise a glass, and proudly toast to where we've come.   Previous years marked by exhaustion, loneliness, isolation. Blurry images flooded our...

Verse 1: I step outside my front door. I wanna go back in for, A cup of tea and some confronting. I’ll hide in my kitchen  And just sit and listen to the demolition Happening in my line of vision.   Chorus: I don't wanna go outside today. and watch my whole world crumble from  what it was yesterday. Failed plans, masks, and online learning, I wouldn't...

If I could tell my freshman self anything knowing how my time at Dunbar ended, what would I say? Would she even listen? She was too busy keeping her head down in the hallways between classes, terrified of anyone seeing her with an ounce of judgment. She was tired of the early mornings, the late afternoon practices and rehearsals, the evenings spent hunched over textbooks and binde...

There are 4 billion Earth-ish worlds in our galaxy and billions of galaxies in this universe. But no curious tribe of beasts has found us yet. We are terribly alone.   But should we be surprised? Evidence of this isn't difficult to find:   It's there in the classrooms of social pariahs, left to endure on their own, no partners to study with and no group projec...

The first place she ever felt real  was on the brick floor in the foyer; June morning, we sat in the summer heat Our sneakers and those neon, nylon shorts gripping the floor, gripping onto this final  harbor; High school was quickly approaching, A sea of uncharted waters; Reckless waves lapped at our feet and we waited to dive.   The first place she ever felt incompetent w...

Thank you for your survival and now that we are here at your arrival, I would like to show you how vital your strength was in a four-year cycle.   ONE- to the ones who had nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat,  but made it to the bus stop every morning-- same shirt, pants, and shoes on their feet. To the ones who watch their friends be buried from gunshots wounds, b...

I’d give some advice, But I haven't got any. Ad someone still wading through my own oceans I'm hardly the kid to tell you where to dock your boats, Where to find your reflection in The horizon between the past and the future. I don't know you like you know yourself, I don't know your struggles or your dreams And I can't tell you what they all “mean”. But after four year...

You have made it to the end of a long and winding path, Your years sown into the dirt with every struggling step The way was dark, lost in the twisted tangled branches of ignorance Like fireflies, your teachers float beside you casting light on the shadows. Blossoms of imagination and dreams wave gently at you by the wayside, Serving to soften the ever-growing weight of responsibility...

Childhoods built upon Castles and pirate ships. Left behind in the dunes of memory Shall lead us once more.   Within worlds where reality doesn’t  care And fantasy has been forgotten. Adult, we shall lose our way. So let’s build a bridge somewhere faraway.   A place I shall be Holding melted snow globes of yesteryear. Flooded by my own crocodile tear. They n...

We are the sweet darling dreams of children Our days spent frolicking outdoors Childhood fantasies becoming a reality We still giggle and leap in the snow Though the snow bites and numbs our skin. Even when those sugar crystal snowflakes End up just cold and tasteless, We will still live in awe   We are shiny new satellites preparing to take our place amongst the stars. O...

Tap. Tap. Tapping foot.  with the snare drum snapping. Team flags flapping. marching in sync with the Tap. Tap. Tap.   Tap. Tap. Tapping foot. Waiting on the bench for the coach to put me in the game.   Cheerleaders shout WE ARE Tap. Tap. DUNBAR. Tapping turns into clapping. and clapping to rapping rhythms and equations that calculators  can't ...

We were fragile like glass, shining in our vulnerability. Newly polished, mistakenly confident. Everyone could see through us.   Another passing day, another lesson learned, and our view became hazy. A knock, a tap, and we became cracked. Bound together, yet growing weaker with each piercing crevice. Despite the imperfections, we withstood floods of tears and wind...

It's a quarter past six As I sit and wait, In my car by the old hotel. The words DUNBAR’S 30th ANNUAL REUNION Reflect upon the black pavement   I shuffle in and begin to talk, Making ghosts into memories And memories into real-life people, That I can’t imagine how I could ever forget. Do you remember the person that always made Do you smile?   The perso...

The years have passed So quickly. We bounded into high school One bright August morning Four years distant  Not knowing What to expect But expecting everything. Faces primed for adventure Ready for the day Terrified of what was in store, And sad that the freedom of  Summer  Was over.   Now we pause, Once more on the ledge Of change Feeling so ma...

You read me, flippantly flipping my pages: Problem sets and glossaries, Indexes and answers. I am your study guide. Every year, your hands file me away in   Your locker. I have evolved from cubby holes To backpacks To cross-campus lockers And combination locks   I am printed, bound, shuffled in a metal sheet of time capsuled knowledge,   And you ar...

We make plans to do the impossible Sitting on our front porches  As the summer crickets' songs surround us  We slowly sip sweet tea and lemonade Talking about “tomorrow” and “One day”   'Cause were unbreakable  Barely 18  With hair colored ungodly colors  Piercings and tattoos  (that our grandmothers cringe at ) And we stay up all night  And sleep our days away...

Our families watch us through camera lenses as we stand struggling with this awkward balance between night lights and nightlife knowing the scale will soon tip decisively towards adulthood.   And these photographs taken, soon to be developed, will be placed on album pages meshing seemlessly with the past.   Because through the years our...

We perch at the apex of youth and legality, trying to figure out what to do with the remaining remnants of fading mortality because after we straighten up our bedrooms, sent packing up for our dorm room, we shove everything into boxes and send back the memories of our past. We pour out the muddy watercolor mixed from years and fill the basin with our fresh fe...