About the Young Writers Project
YWP, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, Vermont, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power and to gain confidence and skills for the workplace and life. YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org, which has only one rule: Be respectful. For more information, please contact YWP executive director Geoffrey Gevalt at ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org.
Erin Bundock, a 17-year-old high school senior from Shelburne, writes about dancing and urging her dance partner to relax and go with the flow.
Swing
By Erin Bundock
Slow, slow, fast, slow.
Look at me –
do you need to see your feet?
Your shoulders bob haphazardly;
my hips sway with our bouncing hands.
It’s okay.
I know you’re taller, but let’s spin – I’ll lead.
Don’t worry, the lights are dim;
no one can see you’re tripping –
Come back to me.
Smile, laugh with the beat;
laugh to slow, slow, fast, slow –
and no, you don’t need to see your feet;
let them flow.
Now you’re swinging.
So look at me.
