Honorable Mention

Gemma Miller

Grade 9

Haddonfield Memorial High School

Teacher: Ms. Holly Maiese

 

Imaginary Numbers

 

If my head goes one way

And my body spins away

How must I find an Adventure?

A grand, wide, sweeping journey

Past rocks and boulders

Fields of grain, glowing stars-

Glowing stars of candles burned too low.

 

Skipping stones and hidden city corners

Cities with purple undereye smears.

Cities that sweep you in with rhythmic, discordant notes

Harmonies of coffee, of tea and midnight stargazing

‘Til the rocking of the waves opens the eyes

And the fish fly-

Skipping above the glimmering peaks.

 

Caps of frost in the morn,

And snow-tops on shining mountains after noon

Mountains so bright the moon looks dull.

But I spy a bird and it takes me back

Back to her nest in a tree

A tree quite like the one out my window

Where I would sit and try

And pretend to fly-

Fly high enough to see something new.

 

But the tree is gone

And the eagle is too

So I must return

Return to my books and ‘rithmetic

And maybe if I add enough sums up,

I can turn the imaginary numbers into something real,

Something real like one or two,

And fly away on a journey-

An Adventure, I suppose

An Adventure or two.