Three Poems by Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate Dina Lusztig
Requiem
Requiem,
say any other word to me but-
Requiem
by any other name would taste as brash.
A thousand tales and thrash could tell
of requiem.
Lethargy,
use my time for anything but-
Lethargy
by any other whim would sing as mute.
A thousand rhymes and roots could tell
of lethargy.
Fallacy,
live my days with any thought but-
Fallacy
by any other horror feigns as weak.
A thousand livid creaks could tell
of fallacy.
Mezzanine,
if I could only view my life from-
Mezzanine
by any other sting could cut as deep.
A thousand lacks of sleep can’t see
a Mezzanine.
Fractures,
if I could see where my life-
Fractures
with reality, where the cracks are.
A thousand letter locks could tell
of Fractures.
•••
Tornado
Note experientially
what’s turned to aristocracy.
Take life experimentally.
It’s tantamount to anything but heresy.
Oh spareth me
your crown of turk’s cap lilies
threaded into parity.
Of woe is thee!
Wrap thyself in heraldries,
and thousand tiny apathies.
And forget wealth disparity
and our growing polarity.
And I might need shock therapy
to fix my own aberrancy,
so I can leave this barren sea.
Turn silent ears to parody,
and burst a second cap’llary,
and STOP.
Break circularity.
Falter the errancy.
Come back to Kansas Dorothy,
and sleep.
•••
Feedback
Step one: question everything.
Bloody fists truthward hurl,
because your kenning
is not “dead girl”…
yet.
Step two: answer them yourself.
Blink, you’ll die, not as two.
Darling all herself
that wasn’t you
cadet.
Step three: change angles.
A bullet’s war will grow
boy to man, mangled,
not boy to girl: so
burn me.
Step four: understand your want.
You are mannequin: broken toy.
Hope not yourself to haunt.
Do not ridicule the boy
turned she.
Step five: begin, self actualize.
Repair damage self inflicted,
but not self galvanized.
You were addicted.
Heart attack.
Step six: you are bulletproof.
Circular logic, how clever.
But, not weather proof.
Not forever.
You fall back.
Step seven: question everything.
•••
Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate Dina Lusztig submitted these poems to the countywide competition to earn the title.
Dina attends Pacific Collegiate School, a charter school on the Santa Cruz Westside.
She lives near downtown Santa Cruz, just across the San Lorenzo River from Front Street.
Dina Lusztig
Growing up Dina never read poetry, and so the first time she wrote a poem she barely even knew what it was that she had written.
In writing as a whole, perhaps her biggest inspiration has been the author David Sedaris, who taught her ways in which to see her own life that picked apart the details she found most interesting in her experiences. She personally recommends his books to anyone who cares for dry wit and memoir.
After high school graduation, Dina intends to go to the East Coast for college. She has always loved New York City and as she has family and friends there, it is her intention to center her undergraduate education around the city.
Finalists in the youth poet laureate competition were: Sylvi Kayser, Aptos High, Gregory Souza, San Lorenzo Valley High, Simon Ellefson, San Lorenzo Valley High, and Madeline Aliah, Cypress High School.
All of them will promote and support youth poets.
