Snow Globe
/I was the shyest girl in the high
school class and went unnoticed
while learning to play a violin
with a class of ardent amateurs.
My father quietly taught me chess.
Tennis came next. I passed all of
my courses, even with distractions.
Someone made a bomb threat so
the school teetered to a close. The
culprit had called off sick. Bullies
lurked in the stairwells. A boy sexted
a cheerleader, who was someone else.
A creep trashed lockers, but not mine.
Bad kids drank and smoked pot in
the parking lot. My room at home,
where I wrote poems, had a single
window. Every winter, during grim
weather, the domain seemed like
a perfect snow globe. It was a small,
radiant world contained in itself
which had a strong point of its own:
it remained intact when shaken.
By Sarah Henry
From: United States