"I am your new tutor, Alexandria---

"Like the ancient library!"

"Yes. The one that we burned. I am supposed to teach you anthropology. Humanity is a terrible self destructive mess. I couId leave it there, but we have a whole hour to burn. So, for the benefit of your young innocent ears, I will expound. I will start by using the most ubiquitous of human devises: the allegory. And where else could one find a better allegory for the nature of humanity then our own history?"

"How can you already be pontificating?  You just introduced yourself!" 

"Pontification is a trademark of humanity."

"It doesn't have to be." 

"We will see if you still think that once I have finished with my lesson."  

"Please just start"
“
"Fine. Here it goes: the story of the first interplanetary war...

The ship was full of rats. They ate all the cabbage. Though, even the rats avoided the bread; the moldy foul bread we were forced to consume day after endless day. Our water supply was running low. But we didn’t think about that much, surrounded as we were by more water then we dared contemplate. Sometimes the sheer volume of the ocean got to us. We would stare at the sea and get a bit queasy. When we were especially melancholy we would add our own precious bile-tinged water to the frothing mass below. I don’t think any of us believed the sea would ever end. We each had our own beliefs about what we would find beyond the blue, but even our faith was washed away by the pure mind-numbing pain of the journey.   

By Penelope deRosset, Edmunds Middle School

Human Citizens of Earth, 

As the Assistant Warden of Galactic Sector IMB452643, I am responsible for your solar system and thus am deeply concerned about the condition in which you are leaving your planet. In your Earth degrees, the average surface temperature of your planet has risen about 0.9℃. (I’m using Celsius here because American measurement systems are weird.) At this rate, the Arctic ice cap will melt by mid-century. That, in case you didn’t realize, means no more polar bears along with a whole host of terrible things. Please don’t wreck your planet. Our sector has had a clean record for millennia. If you ruin that, my boss will blame it on me and Carla from Sector IMB452645 will gloat for ages. 

Everyone needs a joke.
Like I mean it.
You couldn't live without that little laugh.
That one thing that keeps you going.
Especially right now.
Like,
Why do we tell actors to break a leg?
Guess!
Because every play has a cast.
Get it?
Even if you don't, tell another joke.
It will make someones day.
 

I just want to go to the Moon,
be able to know what they mean when they say, “It's a small world after all!” 
Watch the stars with no noises or distractions.
I would go up at night -
wait -
Who am I kidding?
It’s practically night up there all the time!
Unless… 
you get too close to the Sun!
But we're talking about the Moon!
I’ll fly up in a red rocket ship from NASA and jump down in a heavy astronaut suit and helmet
And I’ll put a flag
right next to the American one saying,
“Hey, aliens! If you know how to read - well you do if you’re reading this - but, go to YWP and check out my POEMS!” 
 

snapping turtle,

my yard

last night

I saluted to him 

he didn't salute back

I was disappointed so I went for a ride down the road on my bike

I rode over to my neighbor’s horse

I saluted to the horse

then I went back and stood by the snapping turtle

and saluted to him again

Then I sat in front of him and looked him in the eye

I said hello

and then my dog barked

and ruined the moment
 

Mrs cooper fin’lly switched to zoom
It took her very long,
I’m guessing that it was because
She couldn’t turn it on.
But now she fin’lly sent the link,
We were surprised she dared.
But when we answered to the call
Her voice we couldn’t hear.
 
The audio could not be found,
Her lips were moving too.
We told her to hold down the mic
That simply wouldn’t do.
Fin’lly Mrs cooper spilled
her papers everywhere
The binder hit the keyboard,
And allowed the screen to share
(Poor mrs cooper was confused
She didn’t get this thing called zoom).
 
Our teacher started hitting buttons
As if it were a gong,
We tried to help, then heard her voice
It didn’t take too long.
Then we had to help her out
In ending the screen share,
It took a lot of clicking
But she fin’lly saw us there!
(oh mrs cooper was so pleased,
As if she got a gift of teas) 
 

how would it feel to be an animal? wright about your faorite animal and what there life would be out in the wild or in a cozy home.