Home
Young Writers Project

Search form

  • Login
  • DONATE
  • CREATE
    • RECENT POSTS
    • THE DAILY READ
  • COMMUNITY
    • TINY WRITES
    • BOOK CLUB
    • YWP PODCAST: Line Break
  • CHALLENGES
    • SUMMER OF STORIES: Challenges
    • SUMMER OF STORIES: Contest
    • JOURNALISM CHALLENGES
      • Journalism Project Info
    • THE GREAT POETS CHALLENGE
    • CHALLENGES BANK
    • YWP RESOURCES
  • PUBLICATIONS
    • ANTHOLOGY 12
      • Celebrate Anthology 12 Podcast!
    • THE VOICE
    • SPECIAL ISSUES: The ELM 2021-22
      • The ELM 2020-21
      • The ELM 2019-20
    • MEDIA PARTNERS
    • YWP NEWSLETTER
    • ANNUAL REPORT
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT YWP
    • "YWP is ..." Who we are!
    • PERMISSION FORM
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE
    • CONTACT US
  • Donate
  • LOG IN/JOIN
Previous Post
Next Post
Oct 12
poem
ZoeBee

The witching hour

It is the witching hour.
All the good little children are tucked into their beds and only the crooked ones remain awake
The ones who stay up under the covers with flashlights
Whose lips are sewn shut or glued open 
Who warble like songbirds and screech like records and whisper like nails on cellophane
The little girls who don't comb their hair and who talk back to teachers and lead schoolyard attacks
The little boys who lend out all their hands and polish their spectacles and limp to and fro.
It is the witching hour and magic creeps in through the open windowsills of odd children.
They wait in beds wrapped in cotton or in kitchens surrounded by cookie crumbs or lying on hardwood floors
Breathing the soft song of lumber.
Magic stirs their restless bones and licks their hair and prickles the soles of their feet
And then they are all swept up in the magic like a child with a toy and they cannot let go.
The writers write whole novels and the singers hit the high Cs and the commanders plan invisible troops and the readers
Sink into cushions and fall through rabbit holes and fly broomsticks far away
And for a bit, the witching hour brings them home
Waters them like sun-starved flowers and pulses them through with vitamins of understanding
And minerals of inspiration
But it cannot always be the witching hour
And they must trudge back to school to fight with more teachers and protest more rules and refuse to write dull essays
And draw pictures of fruit and sunsets instead of enchanted castles and how autumn tastes
And they wait at their scuffed desks and do their work indignantly until night falls and they rise
For the witching hour will come again.
  • ZoeBee's blog
  • Sprout
  • Log in or register to post comments
  • Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted: 10.12.21
About the Author: ZoeBee
Zoe
MSG / CONTACT
RECENT LOVES
  • The Journey to Safety
  • To Do list for today
  • freckles are like the milky way
  • Hugo and the Shadow
  • Awakening
RECENT COMMENTS
  • Thank you!
  • Thank you, that means the
  • I’m glad it worked
  • Thank you so much!
  • Wooo yes slay good words nice

Other Posts

  • My son and baby birds
    When my son asks for a bb gun for squirrels, I will hand him wildflower seeds and tell him that he w Read more
    in poem 0 Comments
  • To be a rabbit
    I wait for a day where I am not seen as prey Read more
    in poem 2 Comments
  • Pronounced
    Little Red's basket lay discarded on the ground. Read more
    in fiction 0 Comments

Discussion

Comments

  1. roxyforthewin
    Oct 13, 2021

    This poem really spoke to me. I WAS the little girl who didn't comb her hair and refused to write dull essays. This poem should be read by any teacher-any adult-who has forgotten what was like to be a little kid with lips sewn shut or glued open. It would remind them of that and give them a little more sympathy for those in their classes who sit at their scuffed desks and sob.

    • Log in or register to post comments
  1. ZoeBee
    Oct 13, 2021

    Thank you, I’m glad I brought back that feeling. I was always afraid of the dark so I tried to write it as something to elbrave

    Zoe

    • Log in or register to post comments
  1. Sunflowergirl
    Oct 14, 2021

    This is just so delicious to read!

    • Log in or register to post comments
  1. ZoeBee
    Oct 14, 2021

    Thank you ❤️

    Zoe

    • Log in or register to post comments
  • ABOUT
  • DONATE
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
  • JOIN/LOGIN
YWP is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists, ages 13-18. We're based in Burlington, VT, and we welcome young creators from anywhere!
Special thanks to The Kemmerer Family Foundation whose generous support made this new, improved website possible.
Website development and design by Refaktor Inc., Summit Creative Works, and YWP's Vivien Sorce, Lauren McCabe, Katherine Moran, and Susan Reid.

Young Writers Project | 47 Maple St., Suite 216 | Burlington, VT 05401
501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2006
Contact: Susan Reid, Executive Director: [email protected]; (802) 324-9538