Youth Poetry Winners 2006

Scroll down to see all Youth Poetry winning entries

Unweaving

By Sarah Wade

 

When I see her now –

Laughing with my mother over the bread dough with that easy silver voice

Or perusing the Scrabble board's face

Or beaming down the hallway like morning all over again

 

-I can't help staring through the paper veined forehead

At the loom there,

Weaving backwards.

 

A glorious tapestry she owns

Gleaming years over years,

Teeming billions of moments woven,

All flecked with threads of love and optimism –

 

Stitch by stitch, the loom tugging it back through the teeth

To nip apart daintily cruelly those vibrant swirls.

One more loop unknotted: She forgot to add yeast.

 

At least not yet my name- but when?

It pricks me to watch

Her diminishing   tapestry

I dread

Seeing her a flossy pile

Of thread

Sunday's Classifieds

By Jason Sherwood

 

‘Two parents seek entry level son to perform

daily household chores (i.e. make bed, unload dishwasher),

and complete normal offspring duties,

including, but not limited to: listening when parents

are arguing and assuming it's his fault; withholding his emotions until

the world around him caves in;

and eating pizza and watching the Lifetime channel with his mother while

they wait for his father to come home and

ruin everything.

Good communication skills, perfect

grades, dozens of extracurricular activities, and all other elements

associated with Utopian

nuclear families apply. Full-time,

seven days a week, twenty four

hours a day (including holidays). Pay is

minimal. Prior experience preferred. Fax resume to 201-669-0641.’

"The Figure"

by Renea Spears

 

Your childhood nightmare becomes intense, bigger

When you walk through the night you see the figure.

Not knowing what to do you coward in your inner hole

Remembering about the dreams, "The Figure" had no soul.

Running here running there with the sounds of chasing

No matter where you would hide you knew what you were facing.

You knew the stairs weren't meant to be thrown down

If it wasn't the stairs, he would've shaved your head to see you frown.

As the doors in the house had no locks, so "The Figure" could see me

My love and happiness was now gone as you can see.

He called me to come to him

I wasn't fast enough so he dragged me on the carpet burning the back of my skin.

He threw me in the basement that way I would have no destiny

Crying, scared, lonely, and sick is what's now with me in my hole

I felt some breeze go across my hand that was cold.

For the first time I notice a hole that was bigger than m^

I stretched out on my stomach and looked across the floor in as a line.

The hole gave me an idea that things are bigger and better in life

But the way "The Figure" sees me in the shadow I'd rather take a knife.

In the corner were a rope, pen, and notebook and thought time to start my header

With the rope around my neck, a box under my feet, I got ready to start me letter.

I slipped on the box before I got a chance to start.

Dear Dad why did you change to "The Figure" I loved you with all my heart.

Return to the "Let's Write" Literary Contest Winners 2006