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.
At one time or another, we’ve all learned the hard way that “too much of a good thing” is detrimental to our well-being. The Shakespearean idiom has stuck around for a reason: It can apply to a pillowcase of Halloween candy as well as it can to the joys of summer and the impact of climate change. This week’s featured poet, Plover Corbett of Thetford Center, contrasts the warm-weather idyllic with the eventual consequences of rising temperatures.
Simmer
By Plover Corbett, 12, of Thetford Center
Waking up
panicked,
in a rush, in the morning,
because you slept through your alarm,
only to realize that you don’t need to leave for school.
Jumping into cold,
muddy pond water to hide from the heat.
Camping in the woods with friends,
telling stories
until we’re all terrified of every rustle of leaves
and every scratching of a squirrel.
Summer camps you wait for with so much anticipation
that they feel like they will never come
until they’re over.
Never being able to escape
stinging bites from mosquitoes,
and being so excited for winter so they will go away.
Getting mad
when you see back-to-school supplies and clothes ads in July.
But
what if
every day were summer?
Bugs and ticks everywhere.
It’s always hot.
Trying to camp in the woods, but then realizing
the woods are not the same anymore.
You can’t hear squirrels scratching
or see fireflies glowing.
There is even more fire;
even more animals are going extinct.
No more skiing or snowboarding, because there is no more snow.
All because we are too afraid to change how we live.
Too afraid to stop using as much plastic.
Too afraid to stop talking about what we are doing and actually act on it.
And too afraid to learn enough about how our actions affect the environment to change anything.
If we keep hiding from climate change,
what will happen when we wake up and it’s summer
in January?