Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers, and artists, based in Vermont since 2006. Each week, VTDigger features the writing and art of young Vermonters who publish their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth 12-18 years old. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; 802-324-9538.
“If you love someone, you let them go” can be tricky words to get behind when it comes to romantic relationships we’re willing to fight for; less so when we speak of our own personal stages of evolution – maybe we should only use them when we’re ready to take flight. This week’s featured poet, Montpelier-based Sierra Collins, watches the lively version of herself she is today, in the embrace of another, from the gentle, quiet eyes of yesterday.
True love
Sierra Collins, 15, Montpelier
Though you are lately absent,
I remember when it was you I sought out years ago.
Rain on the windowpane, you snuggled up with a book and a mug of hot cocoa.
Or on sunny days sprawled in the garden making daisy chains,
gazing at the earnest progress of ants crossing the grass.
No time, no space, just you in the warmth of my embrace.
You never called me by name
and we never spoke; our companionship never required words.
But oh how I loved the smile that spread across your face as I approached,
or when you tiptoed up to me and tapped me on the shoulder.
Last year, you got glasses,
your feet grew three sizes,
you found a new companion –
one with red hair,
freckles, and a laugh that scattered pigeons from trees like tossed confetti.
A warmth spread through me as I watched you two.
I no longer approach, but I see you sometimes
through the window, looking lovely.
And though your features blur through the glass, indistinct as Odysseus at sea,
I would know your profile anywhere –
your hopes,
your bent, your yearning.
I am your solitude,
your loving apartness, your hallowed,
attentive aloneness.
Should the time come again when you crave me beside you,
I’ll be back in an instant to cloak you in love.
