[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
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If little else in the way of positives, the new homebody life COVID-19 necessitated this year has provided us more quality time with our families – and pets, too! Essex Junction poet Ruth Knox, featured this week, makes a quiet study of her feline friend lounging on the windowsill, looking out on the snowy landscape with a sense of longing we all now understand so well.
Cat on the windowsill
By Ruth Knox, 12, of Essex Jct.
Coiled on the windowsill,
watching as the snow falls down
from a leak in the clouds.
A tail like an old grandfather clock,
swish, swish, swish,
giving the occasional thump on the wall.
Someone splattered the unwanted colors
and she was caught in the mix.
She is only black, brown, and white now.
Small breaths fog the glass,
steam like the hot cocoa being
passed around the table.
Nose pressed against the cold window,
almost as though she can touch the feathery frost
that lines the windowsill.
Satellites sit atop her fluffy head,
twitching at the smallest sound,
always listening.
Collar purple like the old wrapping paper in the basement,
or the dried-out flowers on the counter.
Or the little girl’s coat, except that it is not speckled with snowflakes.
Still, on the windowsill,
stomach rising up and down,
gentle, calm.
