Eyes of the train
By Lucy Wood
Grade 8, U-32 Middle School
As I board the train
I see so many stories
in so many eyes:
the man with the hollow eyes, greasy hair,
and a strange scent –
he shuffles up the steps and slumps in his
seat;
the teenage girl with the tired eyes holds
her toddler’s sweaty hand,
her boyfriend gabbing loudly into his
phone as she comforts their crying child;
the old woman whose bright, blue eyes
have seen many hardships, yet radiate
kindness –
she smiles at me and nods her head to the
rhythm of the train.
This is not just a whirring machine,
it is a silent storyteller.
Train to the future
This Week: Photo 3 & Room
Each week, Young Writers Project receives several
hundred submissions from students across Vermont
and New Hampshire. This week, we present responses to the prompts, Photo 3 & Room: Redesign your
room with no limits. Read more at youngwritersproject.org, a safe, civil, online community of writers.
About the Project
Thanks from YWP
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and connects them with authentic
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org, and cowbird.com. YWP also
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05401.
By Frances Kaplan
Grade 8, U-32 Middle School
I don’t want to go, but Mom says we
have to. I hold my tears back as I walk
across the platform toward the imposing
train waiting to carry us away.
I have to pull Will by his little hand to
make sure he doesn’t run back home to
our family, and death.
I let go of him with one hand as I reach
up to swat away a disobedient tear that
escapes from the prison of my right eye.
The walk to the train from our house
only takes 10 minutes but it feels like an
eternity.
As we step onto the train Will completely loses it. He starts flailing his
miniature arms and legs, trying to run.
Trying to run all the way back into the
life we will never again have, back to our
parents, to our happy little house on the
hill.
Even if he got away he wouldn’t get
there; no one could ever get there again.
They made sure of that.
“The children must leave,” they said.
“Everyone else will die.” Them in their
masks, they held their guns with such
pride, like killing was a good thing, like
they were helping. They weren’t.
As the train pulls out of the station,
I look out the window at my childhood
home. All I can see are the tracks.
More great student writing at
youngwritersproject.org
Special thanks this week to
MGN Family Foundation
Photo 3 prompt
Dream rooms
From Tunbridge Central School, Grade 4
Jessica Densmore: If I could redesign
my room any way I wanted I would have
five tie stalls and five box stalls. The stalls
all together would be 300 feet long and
40 feet wide... There would be padlocks
and a special area for Wyatt (my horse).
Dakota Flesch: It would be a Red Sox
theme, with a Red Sox bed and dresser,
Red Sox wallpaper with a Red Sox fridge
and a Red Sox hat and uniform. Red Sox
everything. The wallpaper would have
every Red Sox player.
Brooke Jones: I would have all types of
neon words that describe me: music, love,
family, friends and country girl on the
ceiling.
Eli Ferro: My bedroom would be inside
a sea plane; my sea plane would be orange, red and blue and have a big propeller so I could fly around the world.
Taylor West: If I had a room theme, it
would be the jungle. My walls would be
covered in vines. My desk would be a
tiger. My bureau would be a barrel of real
monkeys. My bed would be in a cave.
Parker Bogardus: I would have a fourwheeler and dirt bike theme. I would have
remote control cars in a glass case and
posters of four-wheelers.
Shannon Hadlock: I would design it
like a farm. My bed would be made out
of corn stalks, the pillows would be hay
bales and the blankets would be potato
sacks. In my closet, cows would be sticking out.
Mathias Whitney: My room would
probably be the biggest because I would
have a big video game room, a demolition
derby arena, laser tag, and a big monster
truck arena.
Photo 3. Chelsea Somerset, Essex High School
Penny wish
By Jack Fannon
Grade 8, U-32 Middle School
He’s standing on the bridge tracks, the
breeze whistling through the trees. He
stands still as if waiting for something. A
leaf falls next to him onto the tracks, but
his eyes don’t stray from the horizon.
He sees a train speeding toward him.
Time seems to slow for him and yet he
can’t move; he is frozen, staring into the
headlight quickly approaching. The deep
whistle of the train brings him back to
reality. He looks below him into the deep
churning river and back up at the now
scarily close train. He seems to hesitate
before jumping, glancing back at the
train. He stares into Cyclops and jumps.
The train passes over the now empty
river. A crushed penny falls into the water, a final wish.
Next Prompts
Snails. Did you know snails can swallow you whole? Or that
the Loch Ness Monster
and Lake Champlain’s
Champ are cousins?
Tell a ridiculous whopper but be persuasive
enough that someone
just might believe you.
Photo 5. Library of Congress
Alternates: Proposal.
Write about a wedding proposal that goes
terribly wrong; or Photo 5 (above). Due
Nov. 28