Boxes

by SAMUEL LEE REGAN | 3rd Place, student poetry contest

I am stacking memories,
Cramming my house from floor to ceiling.
Accumulating dazzling treasures,
Just because I can.
I am like a beaver.
Building a dam—to hold in my grief.
I am like an Egyptian Pharaoh.
Collecting things for entertainment in the next life.
I am happiest this way,
In my quiet maze,
Surrounded by my abundant wealth.

Ω

Sam Lee Regan is a Cherokee Nation citizen, visual artist, and writer. As an Indigenous artist, much of Sam’s artistic practice is based on the importance of reclamation, rematriation, and personal/communal understanding. They are interested in better understanding the connections we have as humans with the land, animals, our ancestors, our minds, and our bodies. As a multi-disciplinary artist, much of their work is interconnected. Their inspiration comes from interpreting life through the lens of an intellectually hungry and curious being. They have an insatiable thirst that can only be quenched through the drinking of life, its beauty, and sorrow.

Mark Rosalbo was raised in Leeds, Maine. He spent much of his early childhood exploring the banks of the Androscoggin and Dead Rivers, the latter one of only a handful of rivers in the world that can flow in either direction. Early socio-economic hardships shaped much of Mark’s artistic choices as a composer, actor, and painter. Many in his circle, including his brother, succumbed to various cancers like Leukemia as a result of living along Maine’s rivers once polluted by paper mills. After graduating high school, Mark moved to Los Angeles to study at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating from AADA, he moved to NYC and remained in the city until shortly after 9/11, when he moved his family to Vermont to enjoy the banks of (this time much cleaner) rivers. More of Mark’s work can be viewed at solo.to/markrosalbo.