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HORIZON STAFF BLOG

A Condemned House For Sale

By Sabrina McGuire 

Published March 31, 2025

i am an empty house at the

top of a cul-de-sac, with

big broken windows and a

dead rotting lawn.

you came and stood at my door

and said i looked quite nice

for a house with no lights turned on.

​

i asked you what your favorite colors were,

black, white, and red,

and i spent all night painting my

ceilings and shutters,

so that you could live inside me,

walk on my hardwood floors and

breathe in my dust and clutter.

​

you opened all my blinds

and turned on all my lights,

tore down my peeling wallpaper

until i was naked and new.

you stripped me of my wood and plaster,

covering your hands in my splinters

and laughing like it didn’t bother you.

​

you asked me if i could love you

and i said i already did,

it was cemented into my bones

and built into my foundation.

you lit a fire in my neglected hearth

and promised to love me

even with my condemnation.

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A Conversation Between Christ and Leda

By Leia Gemignani

Published March 31, 2025

cw: allusion to sexual assault

They repeat it like a mantra:

Omnipresent Omnipotent Omniscient.

Beat it into your brain to convince themselves —

Convinced of their own sacred paladin; both sublime yet bound.

​

His hands were the side of a matchbox,

rough ignition and slow suffocation.

No concern for what singes your soul,

and the valley of seared skin as fingers dip.

There is no utterance if it brings him warmth.

 

House of the Lord but Fathers always turn

their back on daughters once developed.

Never saved since miracles are reserved

for those who bring resounding acclaim.

Christ asks Leda to let go

of the sins done against her.

She does not respond.

She knows the detriment

of those deemed divine.

Hope, My Love

By Francesca Hendricks

Published March 11, 2025

I used to dream of skies painted with splashes of color. Instead of fantastical worlds, I saw sunsets that looked like an artist had flicked the paint off their palette onto an ever-changing canvas. My daydreams were full of skies with colors that lit the clouds on fire and made eyes glow with happiness. Now, whenever I looked up, I had to squint from the burn of the low- hanging smog over the skyscrapers. I had once painted my dreams in class, but my teacher had ripped up my paper, complaining it was ‘too hopeful’ in a world ridden with corruption. Since then, that’s what dreaming meant: hope hidden in the joy I found in writing and in the way dust glowed in the rare rays of the setting sun.

Hamburg Inn No. 2

By Janessa Wilson

Published March 11, 2025

Hamburg Inn, a restaurant providing a respite for weary travelers. Weary doesn’t begin to describe my mental state. It's December 29th, and I have driven for over 12 hours in the past five days, with seven more hours remaining. My sister is returning to Florida, which requires a three and a half hour drive to Chicago O’Hare for her flight. She sits across from me, my other half and my mirror.

Living Room Sleepovers Live on Forever

By Chasity Clark

Published March 5, 2025

​At first glance, the room doesn’t look like anything special. It’s a plain living room with

brown, scratchy carpet and old furniture. There’s no TV, but an old radio looking thing sits atop

a chest next to the corner shelves filled with family photos from the early 2000s. The new ones

are in the dining room. You were just a baby in the living room photos, but you still like to go

over and look at them occasionally. It’s cool to see your mom when she was young, your aunt

too. Even grandpa was pretty spiffy back then (now he just takes a finger to your birthday cake

and ruins the frosting in the aforementioned dining room).

The Normality of Uncomfortability

By Joey Pickel

Published March 5, 2025

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David sat on the L-shaped couch in his parent’s living room, he was uncomfortable the entire time but refused to do anything about it. The dark gray cushions gave off an illusion of comfort, almost like one would sink right in and relax as soon as they sat. The illusion was false. The padding was nothing but for show. An extra inch layer of cotton was given to the bottoms over the hard boards that made up the couch’s base. The single inch did not do enough. Hitting the boards were inevitable. The back of the couch was the same way. 

Record-Breaker

By Maddie Zell

Published February 18, 2025

The seasons are turning in false sequence—

our sun should not glisten so glaringly

in the twin month. Our lack of obsequence

to our earth takes its toll despairingly.

 

Persephone must laugh hysterically

as her mother casts drought and heat instead 

of spreading spring bounty plentifully—

withered flowers lay dead in their made bed.

 

Did we not listen to what science said?

Faith in fact? Long forgotten. In its place

stands stubborn, unchanging mindsets instead.

Our planet is one we cannot replace—

 

why do we disregard its well-being

in pursuit of fights and disagreeing?

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Dressing Telemachus

By Ben Ahlrichs

Published February 18th, 2025

The morning after with a soft guy

is great. I'm up first. The bed dressed

with us. Marks of oil from the night

before's oiled back and hand. Oiled foot

and lip on foot. When Telemachus

wakes I dress him with the sheets and my lips 

again. It's great but he's far away

in Ithaca. Yes, dad is gone

and it's morning where wound is wound,

again. And winter is warm here.

It's all confusing, I think. He is thinking

about the ocean. About sailing

to nothing but birds. And red cows. I only

know the island I am. I only

like him because he doesn't

want to choke me while we kiss. When

I lie beneath him, I'm the ocean

and he crosses gentle

as an old boat. No motors. Only

wind. He stretches over me and

he is all the sun's dappled waves. He is all

the cypress and the rain. He is a whole ocean

and all the night's quiet

watching falls down his chest

like shade. And I tell him. I'm sorry

for dreaming you here. Then I'm at the stove

making the bread. Cooking down

the berries to blood. I am dreaming

of a softness I've never had. He is dreaming

of an ocean that sends back his dad.

The Season's Embrace

By Naomi Rivera 

Published April 7th, 2024

​​​​

With each coming spring,

I shake my limbs beneath

​

a golden sun, fuzzy habitants

stretching their wings, foraging

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reconciliation

By Maddie Zell

Published March 24th, 2024

the basement where we once 

 spent all of our time together

   sits now in everlasting darkness,

     cobwebs stretching across the tables

        that hold your long-forgotten 

           beautiful creations.

Snowball Fight

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By Ellie Maranda

Published March 24th, 2024

It’s a blistery Tuesday afternoon and I’m sitting in my freshman dorm room, curled up in a cocoon of blankets. My body feels like it’s attacking itself again; familiar constant pain that seems to never cease despite regiments of medication, sleep, and tea. The curtains are open, sunlight spilling lazily over my cluttered desk, pile of dirty laundry, overflowing trash, un-vacuumed rug.

Too Many Times

By Ariana Luna

Published March 9th, 2024

I skipped a stone into the water once.

It sank,

falling deeper

than I ever could have imagined.

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Guarded Alarms

By Joey Pickel

Published March 3rd, 2024

Me and Eve’s trips to the library at first felt pretty weird. When we started dating, she would get really pissed when I couldn’t think of anything other to do when we hung out except watch movies. There was always something it seemed like she wanted to get out and do, and my not knowing that thing used to get her upset. So, when she said one day, let’s go to the library and get shit done, I wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or not. 

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Retirement

By Lauren Downs

Published February 25th, 2024

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Her days typically consisted of lounging around outside on the veranda, listening to orchestral music and sipping wine. His days consisted of listening to her, to her incessant, whining voice, droning on and on in what he called “country club gossip”, which was anything pertaining to fancy white linens, flower arrangements, or top shelf spirits.

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