A word is thrown across the border,
The fence dividing surmounts the highest peak.
The grounds to either side are stark,
But tight with little room for compromise.
The hearts of people lay on one side.
The souls of the on-high on the other.
The two never mesh.
The low.
The high.
        The mansion on the hill
        The bleakness of the colored wall
The people make their mark,
But no mark is made of them.
The souls up high speak down below:
        “The markers are not trying hard enough,
        Let them suffer”
The diversity of the hearts has a single rhythm
        None can match it
        When explicated – shunned
The color is silenced by a brushing voice
Intolerance, expectation, standard
Weak, minority, lazy
But the hearts outnumber the souls.
Is a heart better than a soul?
Is a soul worth having without a heart?

Sarah Brooker is a lover and studier of all things creative. After picking up photography from a
very young age, she started performing in middle school and in high school began writing
creatively. She worked for several years as the technical director of an LGBT youth theater
troupe and has found that the greatest inspirations, artistically and otherwise, come from
listening to and empathizing with others. As a Global China Studies major with minors in Art
History and Chinese, she hopes to bring to light the fascinating things about that which is often
understudied—commonplace things.