Category: Portfolio

Home: The Best Place to Feel Awful

July, Age 16 The glossy water sways like liquid silk across an iridescent horizon. It’s only 9 a.m. and a temperate breeze flows off the Long Island Sound. Watercolors paint the sky in robin egg blue and white wisps of vapor clouds. It’s the summer before my junior year of high school, and my pulse […]

Meg Brodeur '24

A Good Meal

Something was tickling my cheek. I attempted to move my arm to brush the sensation away, but I couldn’t feel anything aside from my face. The tickling happened again. It was wet this time, sticky. It was quiet wherever I was—where was I? My eyes struggled and failed to open. There was a horrible tugging […]

Kate Ward '23

Tiff And Earl

Hey Tiff and Earl,  I think my roommate is attempting to sacrifice me so they can get all As on their midterms. They’ve been burning multiple candles in my room, claiming they suddenly want to become fluent in Latin, and told me they need to practice for some “ritual” that will happen in our room […]

The Cowl Editor

Favorite Colors

Content warning: mentions of self-harm When I was around 6 years old, my mother asked me what my favorite color was for the first time. For some reason, she had concluded that after six years of dictating the color that would dot my room, clothing, and hair, it was finally my turn to choose one […]

Taylor Rogers '24

On Halloween Night

“Hey Juno,” he says, walking up to me along a mahogany staircase. Avery has little dimples and dark brown eyes with shaggy brown hair that just revealed a little scar that lingered along his forehead. He was a senior, the year above me. He wore his fraternity’s vintage letterman jacket from the 90s, jeans, and […]

Taylor Maguire '24

“So Close to Christmas!” December 24th, 2003

Home was becoming more of a second abode to the two. Alice and Sam would stumble in, late hours of the night, Sighing as they brushed their teeth in an unwanted bathroom. Laying beside an unloved lover, Sinking further into cohesive blindness. Drinking was of the hour, until Alice realized it was the only thing […]

Max Gilman '25

Excerpt from the Diary of an Autumn Oak Tree

I have sunk into a patch of highly manicured terrain and am leisurely suffocating from the anthropogenic air. Dwelling around me is a plethora of frosty elements, embellishing my dull brittle bark with glimmering crystals. My rough skin serves as a protective barrier against the penetration of snow, sleet, and ice. However, my natural body […]

Meg Brodeur '24

Listomania

 Best Halloween Movies Halloweentown Hocus Pocus Coraline  The Nightmare Before Christmas  The Shining Beetlejuice Edward Scissorhands Leather Face Halloween  Sleepy Hollow Scream  The Corpse Bride  Nightmare on Elm Street  Frakenweenie

The Cowl Editor

I Can’t Stop Thinking About Gorillas

I’ve never been afraid of the Mafia, but when my parents were informed that the house that they were on the verge of buying was a Mafia safe house, I was thrilled. Even after someone explained to me that it was a safe house for the Mafia, not a safe house from the Mafia, I […]

Fiona Clarke '23

The Forest Trail

I wish I’d never set foot outside that day. I wish I’d stayed home. Ever since that day, I’ve felt a strange emptiness, like a part of me is missing. It was a gentle fall afternoon and I wasn’t trying to do anything, like usual. Well, anything except moving as little as possible. I was […]

Connor Rohan '24