Finalist

Blue Sky Memories

 

Deep lines travel through

The skin on his peeling face,

And his thinning hair is frosted with silver.

The old man limps toward the sky blue creek

And dips his tired feet into the warm, glistening water.

He runs his fingers along the sharp tips of the green grass,

While tiny frogs spring up from their watery homes

And jump along the man’s bony legs,

Leaving wet traces of their footprints on his creased trousers.

The soft wings of an orange butterfly tickle his ear

As it prepares to fly off his shoulder.

Squirming fish swim by his feet,

Grazing his toes with their transparent tails.

He touches his chest pocket

Tracing the outline of a small leather journal

That’s filled with pressed flowers, and old letters with smudged words.

It belongs to his bedridden wife, his gap-toothed girl

Who now sleeps away her summer days.

He summons up her perfect smile

And the way she’d flaunt it shamelessly

Or the night she kissed him on the lake

Her mouth tasting of salt and sand.

The sun beats down on his face and he can feel

His skin darkening beneath its smoldering rays.

He groans as he stands up,

And the wind blows, making the leaves scatter

As they wave him goodbye.

Then he hobbles away slowly to his resting wife

With lips that taste like water.

 

 

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Carla Cain-Walther, age 15

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Strath Haven High School

Teacher: Emily Farrell