Student Work - Baldwin School

6
S T U D E N T W O R K
Middle School Poetry
d E at H
By Logan Jones-Merrill ’14
The waves bit at my toes
I shriek with delight
But no one knows
How that night I was filled with fright
All I heard was a sound
That was all it took
For you to be lifted off the ground
I didn’t even get to look
To see your last moments
Out of the corner of my eye
All that was left was silence
And I was left to cry
Every day I am reminded
Of that house by the sea
And how you were standing right next to me
I look at the face
In all of the pictures
I feel a disgrace
Feelings of dark mixtures
The waves bit at my toes
I shriek with fear
And remember how you were once here.
Logan Jones-Merrill’s poem won the Miller Family Award
for teens in the fifth annual Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry
Celebration in March 2010.
I d o N ’ t N E E d y o u r b L E s s I N g
By Erica Wachs ‘14
Most women get it,
Others are confused by it.
But me, I am enraged by it.
Are we still at a point in time
When we need a man’s approval
To go and achieve greatness?
We should not be.
Therefore, I don’t need your blessing.
I’ll take off my hat
That keeps my thoughts form flowing freely
I’ll remove my skirt
That keeps me from being independent.
I’m proud to be Jewish
I’m proud to be a woman
But something about that combination
Makes me think that we were made to
struggle sometimes.
I want to be me.
And I don’t need your blessing to be that person.
Erica Wachs’ poem won the Ardmore Free Library Achievement
Award for teens in recognition of perseverance, effort and
excellence in the fifth annual Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry
Celebration in March 2010.