Bunny hill
By Haley Noel
Grade 10, Bellows Free Academy St. Albans
Boots and bindings,
so unfamiliar,
they feel like brand new legs.
I can’t get them to work.
I fall like a calf
trying to stand up
for the
first time.
In my mind,
it seems easy.
My body
disagrees.
Knees are achy.
Hips twist in ways
I wish they wouldn’t.
Board is sent in
every direction
like a blind bird
trying to fly.
I’m instructed to
breathe,
to look in the direction
I want to go,
to keep my shoulders and knees
aligned
with my toes and heels.
Again and again,
bruised, cold
from falling and
falling and
falling.
I want to give up, but
tell myself not to.
I want to go.
Then I go.
Down the hill.
Cold Vermont wind
hits my face,
makes my
10-year-old cheeks
a numbing
bright pink.
I’m going and
going and
going.
I can barely feel
the smile stretching
on my frozen face
when I reach the bottom.
No mistakes
for the first time!
For Christmas,
take me home
By Holly Ray Sherrer
Grade 11, Bellows Free Academy St. Albans
The gray dome above me peels into flakes
of cracking paint, pale pieces
falling into mosaics on the floor.
My fingertips are ash,
and my lips, and the veins
on the outer corners of my closed eyelids.
They’ve stolen the hue that used to tint the
sky.
Two carcasses of cars,
one patch of ice,
one voice; “I’ll be back soon.”
The sun forfeited hours ago.
I am the only voice in the night.
I want that crimson house,
that fire heating the hearth,
those candles decorating the tree.
Shackled to memories of warmth,
my eyes beg for the encasing darkness of a
soft room.
I want the ice to melt off the roads,
my father bounding back,
lantern swinging in his hand.
Take me home.
This Week: Winter Tales
Each week, Young Writers Project receives several hundred
submissions from students across Vermont and New Hampshire. This week, we present local pieces that were selected
for Winter Tales to be performed by the Vermont Stage
Company at FlynnSpace in Burlington Dec.10-14. For more
information and tickets, go to vtstage.org/winter-tales; or
youngwritersproject.org.
About the Project
Young Writers Project is an independent nonprofit that engages students to
write, helps them improve and connects
them with authentic audiences in newspapers, before live audiences and on web
sites, youngwritersproject.org, vpr.net,
vtdigger.org, and cowbird.com. YWP also
publishes The Voice, a monthly digital
magazine with YWP’s best writing, images and features. To learn more, go to
youngwritersproject.org or contact YWP
at (802) 324-9537.
Thanks from YWP
YWP is supported by this newspaper
and foundations, businesses and individuals who recognize the power and value of
writing. If you would like to contribute,
please go to youngwritersproject.org/
support, or mail your donation to YWP,
12 North St., Suite 8, Burlington, VT
05401.
Special thanks this week to
Physician’s Computer Co.
Photo of the week
Lighting hope
By Samuel Boudreau
Grade 12, Bellows Free Academy St. Albans
In winter, trees, the heat,
grass and the bird’s song
all die and drift away into
winter’s pocketbook.
However, there is one
day, out of winter’s
entire spell that makes
it worthwhile.
On Christmas Eve,
people from all walks
of life gather at St. Paul’s
United Methodist Church
and we light candles of hope.
The tiny flames flicker as
they sway back and forth
while the congregation
sings “Silent Night.”
Singing in the crowd
makes me realize that
not everything in our
world has to die
because winter has
moved in.
Especially not our spirits.
Faults of winter
By Sofia Spano
Grade 10, Bellows Free Academy St. Albans
Jonathan Palmer, Essex High School
Winter Tales
Schedule of YWP writers
The chills of winter settle over her body.
The wires of her mind freeze.
Ice glosses over her eyes, cold and black,
losing all warmth as anything
and everything eventually does.
The frigid wind chills her body;
like an infestation it spreads
from the tips of her fingers to the ends of her
toes.
Her cracked lips stand paralyzed with the
absence of her words.
She wilts like the leaves of fall,
her body falling upon the cold ice of the
hospital bed.
Watching the snowflakes fall from inside the
green tinted windows,
my winter is nothing but fluorescent lights
and white sheets.
I watch her morph from my childhood hero
to a corpse, colder than any winter.
The words were the hardest I’ve ever had to
say;
saying goodbye to her
still remains the hardest today.
And when I hear those words again,
the faults of winter flood my mind.
Wednesday, Dec. 10 @ 7:30 p.m.
Jadyn Jacobs
Emily Weatherill
Thursday, Dec. 11 @ 7:30 p.m.
Haley Noel
Sophia St. John-Lockridge
Friday, Dec. 12 @ 7:30 p.m.
Patrick Herrin
Milo Wilcox
Saturday, Dec. 13 @ 2 p.m.
Kaila Skeet Browning
Sally Matson
Saturday, Dec. 13 @ 7:30 p.m.
Samuel Boudreau
Sofia Spano
Sunday, Dec. 14 @ 2 p.m.
Noah Sanderson
Holly Ray Sherrer
Next Prompts
Sunday Dec. 14 @ 6 p.m.
Frances Kaplan
Eleanor Braun
(These pieces were selected from more
than 200 submissions to Young Writers
Project. They will be presented by the
Vermont Stage Company at FlynnSpace
in Burlington as part of the 10th annual
Winter Tales. For more information and
to purchase tickets, go to vtstage.org/
winter-tales.)
100 Miles. You get lost and end up
walking 100 miles through thick,
bug-infested woods. When it’s finally
over, you can’t believe what’s waiting
for you in a clearing at the edge of the
forest … Alternates: Online. Somehow you’ve fallen into the Web page
you’ve been browsing. Where are
you? What’s happening?; or General
writing in any genre. Due Dec. 12
More great student writing at
youngwritersproject.org