Young Voices

2009

KINDERGARTEN SILVER MEDAL AWARD
Frank Santeramo
Homestead School, Garden City, NY

I lost my first tooth in school
I was excited as you can see.
Then I really lost my tooth
I still wonder where it could be.

from 8TH GRADE HONORABLE MENTIONS
Jennifer Ferrante
Portledge School, Locust Valley, NY

Mother Earth

The scent of pine engulfs the quaint log cabin
Neatly standing nestled among the sea of green

I inhale the calm and tranquil air
Taking it in while there is still time

Maple trees producing sap thick and sweet as sugar
Syrup that tastes good drenched atop anything

Blue jays singing their infinite lullabies
Hypnotizing creatures all around

All stop their busy days-
Bees shush their buzzing and observe

Flowers that normally stretch with the sun aren't quite so rigid,
They stop obeying their commander star and float a minute on the gentle breeze

Songs so serene and graceful
Gents calling to the lady birds, flying away together towards the heavens

I inhale the calm and tranquil air
Taking it in while there is still time

For far away trees are cut, chopped, slashed
No regard for nature in the least

Remember the lazy mornings
Waking up to rocking on the porch sipping fresh tea on ice

Preserve the crisp fresh springs that run through like veins of the woods
Keeping alive shrubs and animals all around

Carelessness of man is forcing the forests to thin air
Springs polluted and irreversibly poisoned

We must do something to ensure that posterity gets a chance to view the natural world
Youth grows up on video games and radio news

Inhale the calm and tranquil air
Take it in while there is still time

Our carelessness and disregard for mother
Crippling and paralyzing her

Whatever seems more convenient at the second is what we revert to
If it means dumping wastes into the early ancient oceans, we will

Sands in an hourglass eventually grovel to the bottom
No being can stop it; Time is not forever

We are killing our creator
Only to further convenience ourselves

There is no denying and little time for trying
Heal the mother, she is dying

from 12TH GRADE HONORABLE MENTIONS
Ashley Hill
Freeport High School, Freeport, NY

Where I'm From

I'm from the streets
talk real loud or not enough
I'm from slavery
picking cotton, being told
what to do and when
I'm from drinking coffee
Every single morning
I'm from church
Ten Commandments and all
I'm from gangs and cliques
If you're not in it then
You are "soft or nothing"
I'm from a single parent
Who raised me and my three brothers alone
I'm from friends
Who help you out the best they can
I'm from teachers
Who care how you do in school
From teachers who
Don't care at all
I'm from wannabes and snobs
I'm from good grades and
Readaholics
I just gave you the basics
But there's more from where
I'm from