Audrey Dawson, a sophomore at Essex High School, was inspired to write this piece for her mother one April afternoon while she was away from home, attending the semester school, Coastal Studies for Girls, in Maine. “I could clearly hear and see a single red-winged blackbird in a tree above me. This bird made me think about my mom, who loves red-winged blackbirds. Being away from home, I decided to dedicate this poem and that moment to her. I was inspired to write for her and to say that we can both listen to red-winged blackbirds from our separate places in the world and be together for a while.”
Stolen Time
By Audrey Dawson
Grade 10, Essex High School
For my mom
I lie on my back
as grass,
brittle from snow’s oppression,
flakes off and clings to me.
My hands
are tucked into my pockets,
because although the cold has meandered away,
it whistles back at my bare skin,
gifting me with some pre-spring shivers.
This field
is lit by a steaming slice of sun;
the dove across the road
soothes me,
the chubby robins hop away,
and the red-winged blackbird
trills from the tree above me.
My eyes
struggle to see
only the clean magnificent blue slate,
but then I see two specks of white
glide above,
two birds.
There is a silent, white outline of a plane.
Quiet.
Distant.
Way above me.
Yet, closer,
the happy red-winged smudge remains,
calling from that tree with no buds,
as the sun catches the red on its wings
and throws it to me.
The plane glides away
and I am still.
I am watching the silhouette
reach out and trill again.
The next call is higher pitched.
But all the same,
even here,
the red-winged blackbird’s call
rings out –
and this
is our stolen time together.
