The Vernal Pool

The Vernal Pool is a literary journal that provides undergraduate students from the University of California, Merced the opportunity to showcase their creativity through the power of literature and art.

Art by Stephanie Ross.

Dream

I think I am finally breathing, for many days, the earth was spinning.

Slow down. They tell the clown but he can’t hear you. He’s almost out of gas

and he’s already past the point of no return.

“Mental Health needs a great deal of attention.

It’s the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with.”

-Adam Ant

Why should I bother--

the words, lying on

a blanket of still snow

like tree branches?

We tend our community garden for our seedlings to sprout.

Proud, high sunflowers, nurturing fruit trees.

A person realizes the reason to why their relationship failed.

Feelings can change just how seasons can change.

Sometimes...

My poem is about a a coup;e who split. The girl moved on faster than he did. Now he is feeling remorse.

From the moment that Columbus reached the Americas, brown people have been subject to oppression through systematic racism, microagressions and outright hostility. The rich history of the pre-Columbian peoples of this continent was almost completely eradicated by the European invaders. Brown skin came to be synonymous to poverty, filth, and unattractiveness. This is an ode to my people. A reminder that our existence is an act of resilience, that we are beautifully brown, beloved by the Sun.

The audience sits in their seats

My therapist tells me to stop thinking in black and white.

But I can’t help only seeing

right or wrong

I come from hard earth and clay walls.

I come from early Sunday mornings-

the smell of myrrh and frankincense clouding my eyes.

I come from the mango trees that did not belong to me,

But still scaled up high to escape a life that was not mine.

I am not a rose.

I am not a ravishing ruby red,

or even a semblance of purity white.

Under the Dim Night Sky

Blooming like no other,

My tongue is dry.

And so, she walks like the awakening of light.

A story of a dream turned into a nightmare.

It concerns my relationship to animals and how that has tied into my childhood relationships.

A collection of three seperate pieces, led by the creative non-fiction piece "Define My Eyes". The following pieces, "The Difference Between a Bastard and an Orphan" and "Psy-co-existence" are fiction works. The three pieces are their own stories and are not dependent on one another.

Is graduation really the beginning? Kelvin discusses his attitude towards the seemingly brief experience that is high school and college commencement.

The experience of a young child who is about to leave his home found miles away to another country, where the culture and traditions are much different.

A short story about the troubles of finding a soulmate.

A short tale of a lover who has learned of self-love through the grief of her broken relationship.

"Free yet so far away from home"

photo taken by Uriel E. Angelino.

Block printing on a vintage music sheet. This piece depicts the artist's rendition of the tarot card, "The Sun", in the medium of a block print. This piece emphasizes femininity and self.

On a sunny Sunday, only one thing can be done and that is a BBQ! A moment shared with the family and without much thought, you bond through careless laughs and good food. After the feast is over, the space filled with sizzles and giggles is now empty noise. But there in a box lies a reminder of that sunny Sunday.

There is a possibility this illustrates electron diffraction through the (1 1 2) diagonal direction in of the tetragonal crystal structure of Bismoclite.  I also think it looks neat.

A curious cow observed us as we studied the place it calls home. All of its friends ran in fear of the intruders, but this cow wasn’t afraid.