Editor's note: Kelly Crotty is the third place winner if the Synapse Storytelling Contest creative writing category.

Victoria Turner is the third place winner in the Synapse Storytelling Contest science writing category. Category judge, SF Chronicle science writer Erin Allday, said “Eye Contact Can Be Overwhelming was also a fascinating topic.

I'd give up my throne,

I'd give up my crown,

To see the world painted,

In that beautiful shade of brown,

Deep is the vale,

Deeper than the seas,

For there's more to that eye,

Thoughts from the Trauma Bay is the second place winner of the Synapse Storytelling Contest's personal essay category.

In 2017, I skied for the first time. In 2018, I slipped on ice and broke my collarbone. My classmates got me through the next months, and we crowned my recovery by returning to the slope that started it all.

When you promised to make my brain sing color,

I jumped at the chance.

You were a painter of vibrancies,

inking trails to collect on debts for every

sunset stolen from your palette.

Dimming day’s sunset

Metal birds take off ... descend

Head on his shoulder

Bathed in golden rays

Frigid, Icy Nights

Chatting Faces of six continents, in the highline of the 7 line

Crowded, moving rivers along the conduits of the underground

Running, yelling, begging faces

Rolex, Suits, Prada, Nike

Miles wind the mechanics of my feet,

counters and clocks to tally the movement of my toes.

I pace alongside psychiatrists and counselors on cracked cement

as their words like a foreign language