So this is freedom
Tree Image by iStock
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Lily Stroud, a 15-year-old student from Brooklyn Tech in Brooklyn, NY. You can find more work from our young writers here.
SO THIS IS FREEDOM:
7 years old
I belonged to two families
My family at home and my
Tree family
My tree family
Inside my favorite birch, small, but never overlooked
The walls
A faint misty lilac,
The carpet
Shaggy and white, grayed with age and the mess
Of my being there
Contestant: Lily Stroud is a 15-year-old student at Brooklyn Tech. Image by Courtesy of Lily Stroud
14 years old
Double a lifetime
Of knowledge
Of wisdom
Of suffering
Every footstep, a mountain climbed
Every heartbeat, a race ran
Every conversation, a weekend of obnoxious partying
All purpose
Lost
My shadow stalking me
No matter how far I went
The dark witch would beat me
Swallow me whole
15 years old
Who am I?
The air that is neither winter nor spring filled
My lungs
The pansies, the tulips, the crocuses,
Rebirthing
My tree
Life sprouting from its fingertips
I check in on my tree family
How is baby Fay?
I recall her body was not faring well last year
A voice whispers in my ear
Look up
My tree has an intruder
A rope
Caught up in its limbs
Even in the strongest gale,
It would not give
I balance on my tippy toes
In my threadbare soul-popping
Chuck Taylors
Extend my eczema plagued hand and
Tug the scratchy textile down
I notice the people staring
But this time
I don’t have a care in the world
I just untangled my tree
My family
Myself
So this is freedom
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