Buy your tickets now for our Grades 8–11 musical, Emma! A Pop Musical, taking place December 4 and 5! 
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Fall 23

III. Allegro, ma non

III. Allegro, ma non troppo

by Catherine, Grade 11
Pale is the sky of my hometown, pale like nothingness,
and from such nothingness the transmission towers fade in
one after another, only to fade out
into nothingness again.
 
I found the sparrow at last.
I gave no eulogy, for I’ve
always been laughable
when it comes to words.
Feathers quivered in the breeze
before dirt covered them, 
and I swear I heard the earth say -
your body is but the soul’s hearse.
 
Bare is the dandelion after a wind, bare like nothingness,
and nothingness stares. It turns, tears, burns, breaks;
still the cypselae are always
better off far away.
 
I look inside my head, and nothingness greets me. I devour it
until the vomit replaces the air in my lungs
and until I lose time and love and
whatever’s in between,
but I can’t seem
to stop.
What is better, an empty room
Or a fortress of mirrors?
O life, how did you drift
by the gentlest of zephyrs yet
stand immovable midst
one thunderstorm after another?
How did you make a sky out of every cage
while I made a cage out of every sky?
Tell me, birdie, do: if air fails to catch me,
will earth too?
 
Lost is a leaf in the depth of woods, lost like nothingness,
not for it’s gone but for it’s everywhere. The air ripples.   
When December falls, I, too, am everywhere,
burning under the pitch-black midday sky
like time, like love, like nothingness itself. 
 
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We wish to acknowledge this land on which Branksome operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and go to school on this land.*

*The Land Acknowledgement may evolve as we honour our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation in partnership with Indigenous communities.

Setting the new standard for girls' education everywhere takes collective action. From all of us.
 
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