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.
Hannah Frasure, an eighth-grader at Endeavour Middle School in Shelburne, writes about scary sounds in the night.
Hannah Frasure is an eighth-grader at Endeavour Middle School in Shelburne. Courtesy photo
Noises at Night and Their Effect On Children
By Hannah Frasure
[R]ap rap rap.
on the windowsill.
I shift to the other side and pull up the comforter.
Rap rap rap.
I hear it again.
I become paralyzed with fear.
Rap rap rap.
Mixed with the gurgling of rainwater.
My heart beats faster than a butterfly in a jar.
Rap rap rap.
One more time, and I’ll get my parents.
Please don’t, please don’t knock.
Rap rap rap.
I can’t get up, it will get me.
Things flashing by in my mind; I love life.
Rap rap rap.
I tear the covers off and run into my parents’ room.
My dad comes in and we wait for the systematic knocking.
Rap rap rap.
But now that we’ve turned the fan off to hear better, we realize
it’s just the humidifier.
