10

I come to school and hear the voices,
they talk about Math, English and Friends,
"math is hard."
"Hey do we have english homework?"
"OMG! did you see how short her skirt was yesterday!"
At school there really are no conversations
just little sentences that fill the hallway.

I walk in the grocery store and hear the noises,
"Squeak!" it comes from the carts. Read more »

Whispers

By Shannon Page
Oxbow High School, Grade 10

Voices echo off the walls
Filling crevices and darkened halls
Rumors build while friendship falls.

People laughing but at who?
Parents whisper about you
They just aren't sure what they should do.

Gossip hangs thick in the air
Breaking hearts with out a care
They'd tell the truth but do not dare.

Fear kept silent in her heart
But clear to all right from the start
Her sad small face a tearful chart.

Behind locked doors such secrets stay
Behind cold walls the whispers say.

Behind the windows faces stare
Behind the glass and wood frame there

And I myself am guilty too
For passing these words on to you.

My Hopes of You are Very Much Dead

By Shannon Page
Oxbow High School, Grade 10

Do not look at me with pleading eyes
Do not beg for hand weaved lies
You can not ask what I can't do
You can not will me to please you.

You ask so much that you can't return
The pain and hurt will forever burn
Such simple things I beg you to do
And even those are too hard for you. Read more »

By Mark Frazee
Rivendell Academy, Grade 10

Farming. This word means more to me than a job, it means a life. For 14 years I have worked and lived at Farmer Hodges Dairy in Fairlee,Vermont. There are some crazy people here and they have a way of teaching life in crazy ways. I learned that through laughing we can make our way through the challenges that face us. Read more »

I didn’t know what to do
When I turned away
From the ice cream
Counter
To see a mujer
Holding her small
Child
Over her shoulder
Wearing stained
Ripping clothes.
She looked at me
No words came out of her
Mouth.
Her eyed said more than
Words could ever had explained.
She wanted my ice cream,
She wanted to smallest amount
Of money
So her baby could eat that night. Read more »

Easy for You to Say

By Emma Redden
Leland and Gray Union High School, Grade 10

We read
“Don’t pay beggars.
There are places all
over where they can
go for help.”
Easy for us to say.
The mother of the boy
With the head
Of a caricature,
Needs my help,
She says.
Why would she want
My help?
Her son can get free
Help at the hospital.
It is only two hours away. Read more »

I felt a little
As if I were drowning that day
The small blossoms of the flowers
Formulating rhythmic hypothesis,
(Like bad footnotes in a chemistry text book)
Sighing their white fragarence into the air,
As if they were the doves we had bought from a downtown market last summer,
Then released into the air to the surprise of the vendor.
The small Italian man had smiled at us, Read more »

The bus stop seemed dead, a willow tree over the dirt road and florescent yellow sign that glistened in the rain. No one came, no one went. Read more »

See the music
By Noah Gray
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Black…
Black…
Black…

I can feel the sun on my face,
but it illuminates:
Nothing.

Russet autumn trees,
burning with color
And bathed in golden light?
They exist;
But in memory;
Fading, quickly.

Then,
A note. Read more »

By Hugh Garrett Randall
Rochester School, Grade 10

Walking down the same street,
I had walked when I was a child
I will never be able to identify it again.
The sight of the lady down on the corner
Who came out every day for the daily paper.
Has passed away.
Along with my memories of this street.
The feeling of walking on the cobblestones
In bare feet
The burning sensation that sped my travel home
But now there is nowhere to go home to.
As I continue my walk,
I feel for the gate that enters into the courtyard.
I find it, pull it open, and enter.
As I walk,
The smell of charred wood and ashes
Grows stronger with every step
I extend my arm,
As I walk through the burning field
And my hand brushes a wooden cross.
I kneel down
And run my hand over the engraved words,
I read, “God is just.”
And then, I walk back through the gate,
Walk on the cobblestone road,
And continue my way on the street whence I came.
Wondering
Just who was that person?
Does anyone know? Does anyone care?
What if that person wasn’t meant to die?
What if it was a mistake?
What then?
Well, I know one thing.
My senses may be dulled enough to be useless.
But my common sense will never abandon me.

By Mischa Arielle Rich
Hartford High School, Grade 11

Dear Reader,

You have just been bestowed with the potential to greatly change your life from this moment forward! You now have two options: You can either send this message to exactly 5,613 people … Or take the lazy way out and throw this away. What an opportunity! For you see, O Naive Receiver, what you do with this message will ultimately determine what course your life takes!

It’s obvious you don’t understand. Take Carla Scissorhands. She was only 20 when her best friend, Perry, sent her this "silly" chain letter. She did not take the minimal amount of time it took to find 5,613 people to send it to. Three years later … she was diagnosed with butt-cancer. It’s simply tragic. Read more »

By Amber Haas
Rochester School, Grade 11

“Now gather round fawns and you will hear,
A chilling story told me by John the Deer.
‘Last September a deer and I went,
For a midnight walk on a backstreet called Kent.
Silent we were as we crossed over the road,
Back to the forest where we had our abode.
But out of nowhere a shining car came, Read more »

phone number: (802)767-6060
description: I took this picture while I was on a school trip to Costa Rica. It is a picture of an active volcano. It was taken early in the morning when the sky was still pretty clear except for the clouds starting to form around the volcano. It is one of the best pictures I took there. Read more »

I was in Costa Rica just recently on a school trip, it was indescribably beautiful. There were so many different shades of colors there, some that I’ve never really seen before. But, the most beautiful color that I saw while I was on my trip was the yellow of the sunset. The sun itself was yellow but the way it just cascaded over the ocean water just made the yellow even brighter. Read more »

This piece tied for third in our annual Farming prompt contest. The judging was done by students, farmers and teachers.
Hay Fever
Tanner Haskins
Rochester High School, Grade 10

I have lived next to a farm all my life. It has long-since ceased to be a real productive farm aimed at producing crops and taking care of animals, but a few old traditions have held on. There was, until recently, three horses. Now two have been sold and only one lonely horse, Jake, remains. A couple of years ago, the neighbors (owners of the farm) decided that it was time to put me to work haying. I was hesitant at first, this because of having heard stories about the intensive labor that this requires and not being the most motivated of people. Quite to my surprise, I have come to love summer and all of the haying that it entails. Read more »

By Rafferty Parke
Stowe High School, Grade 10

Maddie was terrible at waiting.

Mere moments of idleness were exhausting for her. At this particular moment, as she lingered at the doorway of the Golden Bridges Retirement Home, she was deciding what to do with her arms. When she crossed them, she felt she gave off an unapproachable air. Straight at her sides was too stiff a position; with hands in her pockets, too casual. She wished she had brought a bag to clutch. Read more »

By Gretchen Kaija
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

An interview with Kevin Kaija, my father, who has lived in Reading, VT, (the epitome of “small town”) for his entire life.

“Dad, what do you like about living in a small town?”
“It’s peaceful.”
“Why did you decide to live in a small town in the first place?” Read more »

A face unknown
By Bekkah Jones
Rochester High School, Grade 9

Mirror, Mirror, look at me
I'm staring back at you and see
And external portrait of a girl
There on her shoulders weighs the whole world
A porcelain smile, big brown starry eyes
A resilient heart that has smiled and cried Read more »

By Vanessa Mongeur
Rochester School, Grade 11 Read more »

The Damage is Done
By Adam Brousseau
East Burke School, Grade 10

Dear George, Read more »

An Angry Citizen

By Alfie Reed
Hartford High School, Grade 10

Dear President Bush, Read more »

How?

By Nick Morley
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Dear George,
How?
How did you get to be president, George? The scandals; the controversy; the competition — the good competition; how did you get past them to gain the title of Mr. United States of America? Read more »

The room
By Rachel Sullivan
Burlington High School, Grade 10

Sunlight cascades through the palatial windows, drenching me in a golden warmth as I stand, stunned, in the most magnificent room I have ever seen.

I hardly know what to say or where to look. I am not even sure that this is all real, that it won’t all disappear if I blink. Honestly, I’m afraid to breathe.

“You like it?” he asks, a smile crinkling the corners of his mouth.

“Like?” I whisper, breathless, “there is no ‘like’ about this. Read more »

Invisible Ink
By Sara Kendall
Oxbow High School, grade 10

A quality present that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction of mind usually through the sense of vision—beauty. The perfect smile complimented by shining eyes. Features and characteristics that are out of the ordinary portray the majority of beauty. Read more »

Fifteen Things I Hate
By Tana McCoy
Hartford High School, Grade 10

1. My brother leaving .1 cm of milk in the fridge.

2. The words, “because I said so!”

3. Having 9999 channels, but nothing good on.

4. Even though the upstairs is off-limits to my dog, I still have to vacuum all the dog hair from the hallways, twice a week.

5. The magnetized pull between my clothes and my bedroom floor, and however long I try to explain this phenomenon to my mom. She still makes me go against the force of nature and pick them up. Read more »

Snowfall
By Alec Ellis
Woodstock Union High School

Nothing is as beautiful as a midwinter snowfall.

It begins as a thin sprinkling of powder that slowly deepens.
As this creamy, white blanket gets thicker, the glowing hope of a snow day begins to creep its way into my mind. Read more »