Finalist

By the Sea on an Early Morning

 

Today is an early morning.

I can tell—it’s not that hard.

Look at the sunrise remnants,

Flashing over the briny depths,

And you’ll get what I mean.

A nice day, a warm day,

It’ll be, I can tell.

It’s not that hard.

Just feel the birds’ chirps,

Vibrating in the air like a thousand melodies

And you’ll get what I mean.

Crisper than most, today

But still humid—I can tell,

It’s not that hard. Most days are,

On this archipelago of the Pacific,

Yet listen to the way the sounds

Of Sunday morning traffic carry in the air—

And you’ll get what I mean.

When you come from the place I come from

(Away North, in the city of fish and apples and green forests)

Days like today never come.

You could wait all summer,

Looking out your living-room window

But it’s either hot and muggy, no grace in the warmth

Or cloudy, overcast, beautiful in its own way but this—

Well, I think you get, by now, what I mean.

 

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Morgan Weiler, age 13

Seattle, Washington

Lakeside Middle School

Teacher: Vita Cohen

© River of Words