Isabelle Luebke

Flower shimmering
with raindrops
and sun—

beauty has come
to this world.

Nine-year-old Isabelle Luebke lives in Little Rock, Arkansas and spends time equally with her dad, Brandon Luebke, and her mom, Rachel Armes-McLaughlin, who is co-editor on this book. Isabelle likes to draw, play with her many cats and dogs (and one fish), help her mom with poetry, play Pokemon video games with her dad, and spend special time with her bonus parents, Danielle and Jack. Her favorite animals are cats, especially her cats – Luna, Max, Ripley, Phantom, Wednesday, Mera, and Miette.

This poem appeared in What We Hold On To: Poems of Coping, Connection, and Carrying On — Winter 2026, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.