What Beats Inside?
Gentle loving words,
Surrounded by eyes.
Beautiful flowers,
Sprouting in my mind.
Love and Safety,
In your words I find.
With you, my Gardener,
I’m sure to Thrive.
Every morning I Rise,
Met with a Gentle Embrace,
And words to Support my Drive.
As I gaze upon your Eyes,
I Realize,
I now Fear to Die.
For now I Know,
There’s much More to Life.
The Eyes of Wonderland
Brown eyes in Philtered Sunlight,
Steady breathing in the Stillness of Morning.
Safety and Security, reinforced through small acts,
Always Patient, Never shoving.
Empathy not Sympathy.
Real Love is Freeing, never Constricting.
Heart Flutters for your Success, and Swooning at your Creations.
Brown eyes in Philtered Sunlight,
Make me Fall and Fall,
Deeper and Deeper,
Into a Wonderland all of my own.
Logically Nonsensical,
Never as it Appears,
Exactly what it Is,
Exactly what I need.
Brown eyes in Intoxicating Sunlight
Looking back at me.
Post-Traumatic Stress
Death knocking at the door,
Big Brudder said don't answer,
Sending .40 slugs through it.
Demons locked up in my Subconscious,
Late nights whispering to my Conscious,
Creeping down my brain stem,
And Shaking my hands in Remembrance.
New people, New environment,
Logically safe, but watching for danger.
Anger subsiding with melancholic peace arriving.
From living fast to living with purpose,
A painful learning curve.
Late nights full of life in evasion of death,
To late nights full of books and talks of the future.
A Newfound sense of peace in creation of art,
Moving me away from the familiar security of violence and danger.
The Devil still Calling, but Quieter,
Drowned out by a new angel on my shoulder.
Poor decisions made out of hatred and anger,
Overruled and forgotten for a brighter legacy,
All in hope for my siblings, nieces, and my god-daughter.
But when I close my eyes,
I still see The Flames and hear Knocks at the Door.
Egan Fultz
My name is Egan Fultz, and I’m a freshman at RU. I’m majoring in nursing. I grew up in Kansas City and attended Kauffman before moving to Independence and going to Van Horn High School. I eventually dropped out before finishing my diploma online through Penn Foster. I am also in an online pharmacy technician program. A fun fact about me is that I really love strategy games and games like Minecraft, where I can build massive structures and create stories with them. I love the freedom it gives me with my creativity. I wrote "What Beats Inside” and “The Eyes of Wonderland" for my girlfriend, with some drawings and poems she had made for me in mind. However, I wrote “Post Traumatic Stress” thinking about a lot of the traumatic and sometimes violent situations I’ve been in the past, and how sometimes the changes are difficult.