Collin College: DigitalCommons@Collin

Limburg, Lauren

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 20 
4-15-2024 
Emotional Baggage 
Lauren Limburg 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Limburg, Lauren (2024) "Emotional Baggage," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 20. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/20 
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. 
F O R C E S
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F O R C E S
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Emotional Baggage
Lauren Limburg
Why must we write of emotional baggage
Like the soulless black boxes 
We curse when trying to pull from the carousel.
After you’ve told me of your baggage,
The baggage hidden from the rest of the passengers,
Don’t forget to tell me of your carry-ons and
Personal items.
Tell me of your first memory of laughter,
The first album that gripped your heart,
Your sincere love of a good commercial,
That sparkling keychain you can’t throw away,
Or the reason why you love a well-placed roundabout.
They all come on the journey with us,
So aren’t they all just as important to who we are
Or the version of ourselves we are traveling towards?
To Love an Idol
Eilish McDonald
Every breath stretches into forever
I could spend my entire life
Admiring you
Adoring you
Share a laugh, share a meal
Lost in your smile, coffee is a date
with just you here
My eyes are only on you
I could never see another
With your care and your love,
I could never be scared,
As your hand reaches for mine
and with just you here
I have loved before, more fierce than now
But the person I was grew.
I found myself lost in the sky
But now I feel more at home
Like we’ve been waiting
Two stars, tangled, in a love parallel
Your joy, your heart
Your smile that reaches your soul,
it warms me like sunshine
Your laugh, so beautifully contagious,
I would join you every time
Your face when you’ve just awoken
Your face when you’re eating well
These moments and more
that I’d never share
if it were just you here.
T
hese m
om
ents and m
ore that I’d never share if it w
ere just you here.


English

Emotional Baggage

Hurley, D.J.

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 25 
4-15-2024 
Golden Hour 
D.J. Hurley 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Hurley, D.J. (2024) "Golden Hour," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 25. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/25 
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. 
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F O R C E S
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Cloud
Mikaela T. Sims
I have always been here
Itinerant by nature
They say let us go wherever the wind takes us,
Though that is my law
My consciousness disappears
A cool rush I open my eyes
Feeling different yet the same
Parts of me float until they grow too heavy
As I hear the voice of my carrier
My kin flock together or go our separate ways
We look soft but when cramped our law is pernicious 
To look below is to see the shadow of my beauty 
To look above is to greet our visiting gods
The stars, moon and sun as they bless us with our color and emotion
I cannot leave this container
But maybe
Someday, I will leave to become more than earth’s nebula
For now, I shall let you bask I my glory as I paint the sky.
Golden Hour
D. J. Hurley


Golden Hour

Burch, Jayna

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 62 
4-15-2024 
Pretty in Purple 
Jayna Burch 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Burch, Jayna (2024) "Pretty in Purple," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 62. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/62 
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. 
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Pretty in Purple
Jayna Burch


Pretty in Purple

Cummings, Brian

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 63 
4-15-2024 
Promised Land 
Brian Cummings 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Cummings, Brian (2024) "Promised Land," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 63. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/63 
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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H Town Life
Lisa K. Dorman
Promised Land
Brian Cummings
They arrive on grey ribbons of 
looping, circling, twisting
highways, runways
blending, merging, bringing
pilgrims, supplicants
gripping diplomas, green cards, visas.
Résumés and recommendations rise
through the hot dry air.
They circle the Kaaba, 
begging for entry 
to chrome and glass chapels 
raised to Plutus.
Once a desert, now an endless carpet of 
McMansions for the chosen people,
dotted with megachurches, 
ornate mosques, synagogues and temples
welcoming all (like us) in friendship.
Winners blame their wins on their god.
Losers find in prayer and worship
the hope denied them in commerce. 
All find a place on the ladder,
even the ones on the lower rungs 
who blame their fate on those even lower.
Don’t Push Me
A.J. Sanchez


Promised Land

Young, Nick

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 65 
4-15-2024 
Rail Tracks, Celina 
Nick Young 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Young, Nick (2024) "Rail Tracks, Celina," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 65. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/65 
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. 
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F O R C E S
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The Iron Horse
Andie Pace
A train has the courtesy to whistle while passing over a railroad crossing.
Two long,
One short,
One long.
When someone is in front of a train, a whistle is blown
As long
And loud
As possible.
I lie awake with this dream of a train whisking me away;
Running off with me, that I may never be heard from again.
The thought of the crying whistle comforts me,
I find it so charming that a train
Can scream out to the world that it wants me to live
Louder than anyone I’ve ever heard.
Or at least, it is sweet to dream of it.
Alone in bed, I listened lustfully to its nightly passing,
Tonight, I fell asleep to the sound of five train whistles. Rail Tracks, Celina
Nick Young


Rail Tracks, Celina

Brogan, Doris

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 71 
4-15-2024 
Skyflowers 
Doris Brogan 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Brogan, Doris (2024) "Skyflowers," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 71. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/71 
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. 
6 4
Majestic
Jayna Burch
spread a wealth of diamonds to dazzle landscapes,
clothe denuded branches in sparkling sweaters
reaching skyward to bask in sunshine’s glory.
Fragile fleeting lives, precarious existences
subject to nature’s whims gradually sink beneath
unblanketed ground to slake winter’s thirst 
as sun melts glorious skyflowers’ wealth, leaves
snowbanks bankrupt, shivering branches bare
Skyflowers
Doris Brogan
(Dedicated to Miguel de Unamuno)
Skyflowers float on winds of destiny,
dance in winter light’s shine.
Frozen moments of free-falling oneness 
coalesce, transform into blankets 
sewn atop bare ground to pillow landings.
Trillions of flakes form huge bank depositories,
a brilliance of riches to glisten silver bright,


Skyflowers

Sims, Mikaela T.

Forces 
Volume 2024 Article 74 
4-15-2024 
Stained Glass 
Mikaela T. Sims 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces 
Recommended Citation 
Sims, Mikaela T. (2024) "Stained Glass," Forces: Vol. 2024, Article 74. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/forces/vol2024/iss1/74 
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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Aged Angles
Lisa K. Dorman
Stained Glass
Mikaela T. Sims
I would sometimes see us sitting in our cathedral
That we built with our heart and painted with our soul
With grand windowed walls broken but not shattered
Each pane carefully thought out with images of our past
Pieced together with every color, a perfect symphony
But what shone the brightest was an adolescent blue
A blue so lonely but beautiful on its own
A blue so lonely but loved to be alone
I love that we would contemplate our perfection
I loathe that we would hide our cracks behind metal and reflection
But now that you’re gone why am I the only part left of us?
Is this what it means to be in your own limbo?
With my life standing before me never flashing
With my life of stained glass, everlasting.


Stained Glass

Metallic Paper Print 8 – 12”x18” Instructor: Lisa Means Class: Portfolio Developmenthttps://digitalcommons.collin.edu/studentphoto2024/1010/thumbnail.jp

Eagles, Emory

For the Love of the Game - 2024

Photography 17”x23”https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/paa2024/1009/thumbnail.jp

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Emotional Baggage

Golden Hour

Pretty in Purple

Promised Land

Rail Tracks, Celina

Skyflowers

Stained Glass

For the Love of the Game - 2024

Blindsighted - 2024

Last Look - 2024

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