Collin College: DigitalCommons@Collin

Roberts, Abby

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 60 
4-15-2024 
Piggy Bank 
Abby Roberts 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Roberts, Abby (2024) "Piggy Bank," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 60. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/60 
This Poem is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Collin. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Forces by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Collin. For more information, please contact 
mtomlin@collin.edu. 
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F O R C E S
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Lisa Jo
Kimberly A. Catino
Piggy Bank
Abby Roberts
If I had a nickel
for every time someone called me a robot,
I’d be one of those electronic piggy banks.
My sole purpose to account for your change;
Collect your petty cash and make cents of it all.
I’m tired of a copper-coated mouth,
and a silver tongue.
I can think of many things I’d rather do,
than consume one more thing out of pocket.
I would instead give you a piece of my mind.
I don’t need your two cents
when you tell me
my monotone voice
and careful phrasing
make me seem robotic.
You are free to assume what you like,
but I know my ledger better than you.
And despite your perception
I am wealthy with emotions
that are richly felt.


English

Piggy Bank

Mardele, Susan

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 70 
4-15-2024 
Skirts 
Susan Mardele 
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Recommended Citation 
Mardele, Susan (2024) "Skirts," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 70. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/70 
This Poem is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Collin. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Forces by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Collin. For more information, please contact 
mtomlin@collin.edu. 
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F O R C E S
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Skirts
Susan Mardele
I forget about you most of the time,
except when you are absent.
It is then I demand your presence –
need you beyond all else. 
You fill me, tingling through my entire body
from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
The satisfying filling in my chest,
keeping my steady heartbeat, the tempo of life.
Your soft caress a lover’s silken hand,
you have permission for every touch.
You fly me to the skies,
an invisible lift beneath me. 
I glide on your benevolence
toward dreamed-of destinations. 
You have moods, gifts,
tremendous presence and generosity.
Yet, when angry, you wield
unheard of devastation.
You do have your lighter moments, though.
Who else would have the cheek 
to blow up Marilyn Monroe’s skirts.
Pretty in Pink
Patricia Coble


Skirts

Chavers, Kaylee

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 78 
4-15-2024 
Tenacity's Bold Beauty 
Kaylee Chavers 
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Recommended Citation 
Chavers, Kaylee (2024) "Tenacity's Bold Beauty," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 78. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/78 
This Painting is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Collin. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Forces by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Collin. For more information, please contact 
mtomlin@collin.edu. 
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Tenacity’s Bold Beauty
Kaylee Chavers


Tenacity\u27s Bold Beauty

Diorga, Viona A.

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 80 
4-15-2024 
The Grandchildren and The Memories 
Viona A. Diorga 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Diorga, Viona A. (2024) "The Grandchildren and The Memories," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 80. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/80 
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Collin. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Forces by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Collin. For more information, please contact 
mtomlin@collin.edu. 
5 8
The Grandchildren and The Memories
Viona A. Diorga
The laughter of the grandchildren filled the entire house with joy. 
Everyone who walked in front of the house could feel their happiness. 
An old Samsung TV in the middle of the living room was showing a 
2006-released film, Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia, and it successfully stole 
the whole attention of the grandchildren. Yes, of course, they laughed so 
hard because of a blue-haired little creature, with fancy pink hair on top 
of its head that sticks up, who acts like a little kid with all its pureness, 
naughtiness, and cleverness. At that time, the house had nothing but 
cheerfulness and the smell of their favorite snack. Warm fried bananas 
covered with sweet flour as sweet as caramel were ready to melt in 
every inch of their little mouths and deserve to be compared to a five-star 
restaurant’s dessert.
The living room that is in the center of the two-floor house in 
Tangerang, Indonesia, has a statue of Mary and Jesus who bless Sumanto’s 
big family every day. In that room, there was a long red sofa on the right 
side, a black display rack of old antique figures, plates, and teacups on the 
left, a painting of Grandma and Grandpa on the wall above the TV, a small 
black table under the statue was standing next to the display rack, and a 
bed across from the TV where they made a mess.
Morning Dew
Leon King
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F O R C E S
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The warmness of the memory will eternally be there
  and never change or fade in the grandchildren’s hearts.
All six grandchildren left memories on every side of the room and the 
house. The house was the only place where they could do various fun things. 
If they wanted to eat some sweet and juicy Panama Berry, they only needed 
to take some steps from the kitty-corner of the grandma’s house to an empty 
house with a big but short Panama Berry tree in the front yard. Even though 
they fell repeatedly while trying to get the Berry, the tree was their favorite 
spot. If they wanted to fly kites, the wind that always passed through the large 
balcony on the second floor would gladly help them. If they wanted to buy 
some snacks, they could walk five minutes to the small store behind the house. 
Salty Cheetos or sweet brownies, or even sour candy, which has never been 
chosen by the grandchildren, always greeted them on the white display table. 
The house felt like a playground that was run by Grandma and Aunty.
Now, in the present time, the house that the family rarely visits and where 
the grandchildren’s parents spent their childhood too will be nothing but 
a tollway. Modernization will make the house into roads. Physical proof of 
their playful and cheerful memory soon cannot be touched or even seen. But 
although they cannot go back to the past and keep getting on, the memories of 
childhood will not be old. The warmness of the memory will eternally be there 
and never change or fade in the grandchildren’s hearts.
Red Flower
Leon King


The Grandchildren and The Memories

French, Kaci

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 90 
4-15-2024 
You Are the Artist of your Life 
Kaci French 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
French, Kaci (2024) "You Are the Artist of your Life," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 90. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/90 
This Photograph is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Collin. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Forces by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Collin. For more information, please contact 
mtomlin@collin.edu. 
1
F O R C E S
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
You Are the
Artist of your Life
Kaci French
W hen I run, I have developed self-identifiable mental mile markers: the duck house –  mile 1, Buddy the white Poodle and Tammy on their front porch – mile 2 … each mile  
a point I know, a mile I expect to be in place, a tangible sure. The picnic table by the leaning Elm … 
but, last week the Elm fell after our yearly winter blast. One of my expected markers of place,  
a permanent marker, was simply gone.
Michael Gregorash passed away Jan. 21, 2024. Michael, the primary Student Government 
Association advisor and director of the Student Activity Fee Advisory Committee (SAFAC),  
was the Elm I ran to for Forces each year, to be renewed, approved for financing “as worthy”  
of  student funds.
SAFAC is a very necessary and worthy vetting for all special activities through the college.
Michael’s support was unwavering. He continuously, diligently built panels with students  
and other college representatives to make sure each year that all SAFAC funded projects were  
solid, real experiences in multifarious arenas, meeting the rubric for forward-moving student 
development and enrichment.
Last year I missed the final meeting of my SAFAC funding request. Ironically, I was 
delivering my own father’s eulogy. When I returned, he simply said, “When you are ready,  
we can meet. Life happens.”
This year, Forces, approved and funded by SAFAC – via Michael – is to be unveiled the  
same week as the total solar eclipse across North Texas. Michael’s profound gesture of grace  
to recognize my father’s passing is a sort of acknowledgement of a blacked-out sun, a moment  
to mourn. However, it is also a “constant” of the college to shine again after the dark – not 
slighting the contributors, the recorders of our Collin history, by connecting the past with  
the present and those to come in the chain-linked future.
“Every man’s death diminishes me,” English poet Jonne Donne once said. Thus, I dedicate 
this issue to Michael for being human in a very human moment. He was one piece of a lengthy 
process. Without his contribution, that piece, the dream of the collective us in the journal and  
our observations would be lost like grand thoughts in the night, the kind of thoughts we are 
confident we’ll “remember in the morning.”  Those are the grand thoughts we lose because we 
simply don’t record them. Thanks to Michael, this year, and those before, have been recorded by  
a choir of voices and stamped in time as a tangible artifact reminding us “The Sun also Rises.”
As always, thank you to Dr. Neil Matkin and the Collin College Board of Trustees, Digital 
Commons Manager Mindy Tomlin-Paulson, Dean Dr. Meredith Wang, Dr. Kelly Andrews,  
Dr. Regina Hughes, the forever wonderful Communications team of Tricia Murray, Marlene Miller, 
Donna Kinder, and Kirk Dickey, and the ultimate Forces team of Claudette Lowery, Rachel Walker, 
Annie Bousquet, and Glenn Trueman. 
    Forces Editor - R. Scott Yarbrough


You Are the Artist of your Life

Archival Pigment Print 8 - 11”x14” Instructor: Lisa Means Class: Portfolio Developmenthttps://digitalcommons.collin.edu/studentphoto2024/1008/thumbnail.jp

Gomez, Lea

Do You Know Where I Am? - 2024

Ceramic and Found Objects 4.5”x4.5”x4.5”https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/paa2024/1023/thumbnail.jp

Hatley, Amy

For Keeps - 2024

Photography  32”x48”https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/paa2024/1027/thumbnail.jp

Kreimborg, Deb

Heaven On Earth - 2023

Charcoal, Acrylic on Panel 18”x24”https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/paa2024/1031/thumbnail.jp

Gribbin, Brenda

Is and Is to Come - 2023

Photography - Print on Canvas 20”x30”https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/paa2024/1040/thumbnail.jp

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