Toy Shop

Ella Cave

I walked past that toy shop today,
The one we went to on our first date.

We bought stuffed pandas there,
To remember our trip to the zoo.

I got one black and white, fluffy beyond imagine,
Yours was red, dense reddish-brown fur and ringed tail

Mine is wedged in the crack
between my bed and the wall.

It still has your middle name, Axel,
But it seems to have lost its meaning now.

Sometimes I find him, hidden away,
and rescue him from extinction.

“Hello,” I say, and his soft fur
makes me think of you.

But it’s a different thought now, than what it was before.
Where there was much, now there seems to be little.

So I say to the panda bear, with a dash of anger and fondness,
“It was a good time we had”

I set him down on my blanket and wait
for him to slip between the cracks again.

Ella Cave

Biography: Ella is as graduating third year at Oregon State University who loves writing anything creative. She grew up in Happy Valley, Oregon with her family and two dogs. She plays ultimate frisbee for the Oregon State club team and goes line dancing whenever she can.

Artist Statement: This piece is about remembering the past, and how your roots can bring you back into an old situation.

Ada West

Biography: Hi my name is Ada West! I’m a freshman here at OSU and am majoring in early education! I have a huge passion for painting and writing music. A sweet soul in my poetry class told me about the magazine so I thought I would turn something in. 🙂

Artist Statement: I got bored in my dorm one night and decided to paint one of my dad’s saw blades. The category roots stood out to me because my dad had used that saw so much to the point it was dull. So I took the life it had and turned it into something new. He is the hardest working person I know and he is my roots. 🙂