A huge thank you to all who took the time to enter the 2025 Solano County Library Teen Writing Contest!

We were honored to read your work, and encourage each of you to continue writing.

Please enjoy the winning entry below!

POETRY WINNER

The Things You Said Too Quietly

(In the Static)

by Selah Olivia Poblete

 

 

they say silence is what choked             (1: dead is not blankened coral.

the heavens out of                                  2: muscle with no memory.

people like you.                                      3: war cries from the mute.)

 

and what people,

when i mean simply

statues with a pulse,

with built in chatterboxes with

lines sound out of your

throats into a gritty mumble

just to prove that they all can

speak.

 

these people have

jaws that unhinge oddly wide—

only what metal wires

interwoven through

clenched teeth can bear,

whose eyes bulge

wide out of their sockets

either because

they have too many ideas

stuck in that brain of theirs,

or because the writhe in pain of

forgetting them all.

 

they cry by spitting

red-soaken (blood? tears?)

onto your cheek since they

cannot slap it, nor do much

more than to talk and babble,

though just to make noise.

 

my mother,

red spit and blood

all over her cheeks,

told me that they will grind me

in between their teeth

and gnaw on my

bones like hungry dogs.

do not let them have a taste,

she slurred, wires sticking down

her throat,

be the meal they can taste

but never swallow.

 

twice through the back molars,

but my mother also

said that you

get used to the

metallic taste on

your tongue.

 

masks put on

long enough

cause deformity,

                                                            (but do not mix it up else they

                                                             call it correction.)

are you muzzled,

or simply trained?

                                                            (who are you talking to?)

blank eyes

meet mine behind TV

                                                             they know, don’t they?

static.

                                                            we deserve to be free, FREE

STATIC.

                                                            RALLY THE CRIES OF THE FORGOTTEN

                                                            brethren who roll under bullet casings—

STATIC.

 

…the man’s lips are pursed and

(sewn) shut, but even from here,

the glisten that rolls of his lips,

i can tell, is not spit,

but blood.

 

he attempts to hold it in before

he gags, the gun

cocked to his temple

reminding him—

                                                              (to keep talking

                                                               but remain silent).

for only second i think:

the people screaming outside

scream all too loud

for a world that should be quiet,

until the static rolls back in,                    (to retain the peace)

and the silence chokes the pulse            STATIC[HAOS]

out of me until i can barely breathe.       STATIC

 

the last thing i feel

is a mask being shoved

onto my face, wires

poking my molars—

freezing my jaw to

an open mouth.

 

the last thing i hear                                ₮ⱧɆ Ⱡ₳₴₮ ₮Ⱨł₦₲ ł ₴₱Ɇ₳₭:

is overwhelming static,                           i hear the children and mothers screaming,

what should be loud                              but just as i feel their voices gather at my throat,

being all too quiet                                 bile rises instead, a glimmering gun

while my soft breathing                         pressed just above my ear

and shifts blast through                         reminding me to talk

my ears.                                                  but remain silent