A Brand New Year

Typing this title, I feel like I can hear Sting (does anybody know who this is?) singing "turn the clock to zero" in the back of my head.  And that is kind of what the start of each school year feels like to all of us: new faces, spaces, great expectations (the kind you get signed on the first day of school, not the Dickensian sort).  Soon, though, we'll all settle in to a routine, a rhythm that life assumes, the turning open of notebooks, the tides of tests.  Some might call it boring, but to those with the right frame of mind and attitude, every waking moment is an adventure, even the predictable ones.

So take a moment to connect to the little things around you with this poem to open our year, written by eighth-grader Maggie M.  After all, what defines an adventure is all in the eye of the beholder.

Little Things

The red scarf

Slid slowly down

The brown banister

Past the puffing fan,

The barking dog,

The open refrigerator door.

 

The ruby scarf

Gazed at the generations

That lived on the walls.

Dipped its frayed edges to the

Coat hanger,

The hats shivering at the wind,

Blasting from the open door.

The scarlet scarf

Jumped up the shoes

That lay scattered

Across the floor.

The scarf rested on the cushioning

Of the upholstered
Green bench,
And waited for the next
Adventure.


Maggie M. -- Grade 8