An Adventure Awaits When...

Poetry, Cesar Toscano

The creeks filled with running ducks and geese

We traversed from rock to rock

mosquitos joining in the chase

In those days, 

We wanted to amend abstraction to reality

Pour our dreams into the water

and hope for something in return

Our moms told us not to go down there

To go into the bushes

meant delving into the abyss

Hungry coyotes and poisonous plants

We were told as if

we were a step away from death

But never mind, the creek called to us

The bushes breeding a wild movement in the wind

We wanted to crawl inside and find something

in the crevices below the hill that never ended

We wanted to see for ourselves 

what lied inside

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Cesar Toscano is a Chicago-based writer, with a BA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago. He worked as an assistant poetry editor for Allium Journal. He is the recipient of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Certificate of Merit for his poem “A Dinner Night Passed”. His poem ”Dream Workshop” was selected as the winner of the 2024 Allen and Lynn Turner Commencement Poetry Competition. He also runs his magazine, Mystical Owl Magazine, for strange fiction and poetry. His work delves into mental health and identity through a speculative, magical realism, and horror lens. When he is not writing, he enjoys watching movies and playing video games.