Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers and artists, which has been 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 12- to 18-year-olds. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org and 802-324-9538.
To be a fly on the wall when you’re itching for gossip might be a hoot, but would that we could be a true silent observer for a day — rise up into the hovering clouds and gaze at the wild tangos and subtle shuffles between friends, strangers, furry folk, and growing things: all that breathes in the natural world. As this week’s featured poet, Thetford Center-based Emilia Williams, ends her piece,“Then, now, and evermore, we are connected in this wonderful dance.”
Somewhere presently
By Emilia Williams, 16, of Thetford Center
In the distance, a newborn is wailing (a strand of hair is wrapped around his toe).
A sparrow rises to the branches bearing beams for her babies’ nest.
A woman at a coffee cart on the sidewalk below tells the barista
she’ll pay for the coffee of the father with two young children behind her.
Music drifts down from a nearby window:
A child practices the piano in an apartment above — they will be someone someday
(even if that note was supposed to be an A-sharp, not a B).
Across the street, a tabby cat stretches, fulfilled, in a sunbeam on the windowsill.
An elderly man sits at the wheel of his car pondering what he will do when he arrives home.
He misses his grandchildren; it’s been months apart.
Miles away (but close to heart), they sit at their kitchen table after school, awaiting his call.
A librarian down the street introduces a young girl to Maya Angelou
and Grace Paley — and the world expands before her eyes.
A delivery woman buzzes past with packages overflowing —
her lavender bike matches the flowers recently awakened.
A ginkgo leaf falls from the tree planted on the walkway.
Arm in arm, a couple strolls by, coffees in hand, conversation bubbling in the air.
The sun shines, occasionally covered by clouds floating past,
sunbeams seeping through leaves and branches.
Then, now, and evermore, we are connected in this wonderful dance.