Finalist

Lunch in Phuket, December 26th

 

Earthspeak:

Rumbled, thundered out the vowels

Sounding of ancient terra

            And its dance through the centuries

Shook the resonant sea awake

A seismic wave, sifting the black dirt

Far beneath the ocean in its shimmering basin

Was answered

And the water’s flowing dance began—

                  I rinsed my dishes in the sink.

More waves snaked East, then West

The dance quickened in pace

Fishing boats bobbed to aqueous rhythms

Now unsettled, frothing, foaming

Ocean-tossed stars—

           White flecks of sea-spray

Grasped at the coast

            Foamy soap clung at my arms like limpets—

it was my turn to wash up.

And the deep sea strode in

sprinting now

            As its blue-green hands

            Reached out

And the Tide came in…

 

---

Madeline Wong, age 13

(2003 Grand Prize winner)

Bellvue, Washington

Lakeside Middle School

Teacher: Alicia Hokanson