Gone with the Wind

How I long to touch the springing grass and make it go away.
To leave me be and maybe try again another day.
Just freeze again, please, the gushing river,
And let the winter freeze stay forever.

I am clinging rust,
I am grasping shade,
I am the guest that overstays his welcome.

Though I dare to hold for more days,
to come up with more of these rhymes,
I know that I must leave the grass, the river, the world,
and come again in one year's time.

---

Hannah Nailor, age 13
2008 Finalist
Kirkwood, Missouri
North Kirkwood Middle School
Teacher: Melissa Banjak