You Got Lost Inside an Afternoon

Ashes bled into your fingers
as you searched
for Petoskey. Your dog
trotted ahead of you,
tail waving under the grainy sky.
Soon it began to rain.
The lake embraced puddles
that formed on the shore
where you walked, your shoes
muddy, your heart
content. Sometimes
in your dreams

you find yourself standing
on that wet beach
with shells in your hand,
the dunes pressed up so tightly
against the sky, trees dripping
rainwater. Sometimes you dream
that an egret calls in the distance,
once,
twice,
then silence.

---

Patricia Schlutt, age 14
2009 Finalist
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Rodney Torreson's Poetry Workshop
Teacher: Rodney Torreson