The Pond Behind My House

The pond behind my house
sits quietly rippling, shallow and dark.
Like her siblings the rivers, oceans and lakes,
a lover of rain and fresh melting snow.
She fears the sun—a slow hot demise,
and thirsts for water—a random revival.
A sliver of calm tucked into new urban sprawl,
fish, turtles and frogs—they make her their home.
She resides in a woodlot just bigger than she is,
the pond behind my house.

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Ruben Moreno, age 10
2009 Finalist
Silver Spring, Maryland
St. Andrew Apostle School