Leila Barnes (16)


The Summer All Our Lemons Turned to Limes

The summer I first savored that sweet wine,
I tasted something sour on the night,
The summer all our lemons turned to limes,

Our lemons, prayers, juicy, firm, sublime,
Conceal a secret, pith that’s pure and white,
The summer I first savored that sweet wine,

Mosquitos there left welts the size of dimes,
At dusk they stole sweet citrus in their bite,
The summer all our lemons turned to limes,

As summer temperatures began to climb,
We sweated in the sunset’s yellow light,
The summer I first savored that sweet wine.

That season all our reasons turned to rhymes,
Yet Peter, Paul, and Mary could not write
The summer all our lemons turned to limes,

And though I may devote a whole lifetime,
I’ll always taste the bitter delight,
The summer I first savored that sweet wine,
The summer all our lemons turned to limes.



An Ocean

While I was searching for myself
I found my keys, my heart
And jumbled in a lone suitcase
I couldn’t get them apart

The two were fused and neither used
This posed a problem as
I had to give my heart away
My heart of fragile glass

Although I had been hurt before
Who hasn’t in their time?
I needed a heart, good as gold
To give the love of mine

There is no greater gift on Earth
Than true love’s devotion,
For Christmas I long to be whole,
To give her an ocean.



Leila Barnes is a sixteen-year-old Californian. She enjoys long sleeves and other things California doesn’t have.