Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
“Ahhh…”: an involuntary sound. There’s nothing quite like dipping your feet (or your whole body for that matter) into a tucked-away pond or crisp, murmuring stream on a warm summer’s day. This week’s featured poet, Elise Cournoyer of Richmond, allows her mind to slow its pace and find appreciation for the idyllic wonders of the natural world on lazy afternoons by the river.
Slow Days
By Elise Cournoyer, 14, of Richmond
When the sun never sleeps
and the days are sweet and long,
I lay my body down in the river.
I open my eyes underwater
and see the stained-glass sky,
fragmented by ripples
and bubbles slipped out from my throat.
Small, orange stones press
against the soles of my feet,
but it’s okay. They’re already calloused.
When I go home,
I won’t put my earbuds back in.
As much as I love losing myself
in melodies and strains,
they make my head throb and sputter.
I splash water onto the rock,
and it lands like messy splatter paint.
It sprinkles me, too,
and I laugh out loud.
I sit on the rock,
and I let the minnows nip at my toes,
peeling away what used to be
and leaving me with easy whirlpools,
a soothing summer,
tall grasses,
rhythmic peepers,
a stained-glass sun,
and long, slow days.
