First Place
The Gum Ball Machine of Life
Life is like a gum ball machine.
You put in your quarter like you put in effort.
For that quarter you get a gum ball.
When you put effort in life, you get rewards or good times.
Even though you get that gum ball, you can’t pick your color.
In life you don’t get to pick your reward or good time.
But no matter what color you get,
You eat the gum ball and enjoy the taste and texture of it.
In life you take that reward or good moment and enjoy it,
Just like you enjoyed that gum ball.
No matter what color you get,
Or what life throws at you, enjoy the taste and the moment.
Michael Kolmansberger Madison Comprehensive High School 10th Grade
Second Place
Just a Smile
How carelessly they start,
making worries fall apart.
A joke, a sound, an action
can start the chain reaction.
They spread without any warning,
getting rid of all mourning.
How simply they begin,
beautifully, time and time again.
Never going out of style,
All it is is just a smile.
Valerie A. Carter Lexington High School 10th Grade
Third Place
That Perfect Place
What happened to that perfect place
Where golden sunshine warms my face,
Of daffodils and bumblebees,
And bright blue skies and blooming trees?
Wherever is that wonderland
Of mermaids singing on the sand,
And large, plump mushrooms in the wood,
Where faeries dance and times are good?
When will I find that world of laughter
Of merry feasts and rich desserts after,
Of luscious meadows where children play,
Where bubbling brooks flow on their ways?
This land, some may say, is for the young,
Whose harried lives have not yet begun.
But we all have our own land of joy,
That we lived in as a young girl or boy,
Where we secretly visit now and then,
And wish we could forever return to again.
Sarah Brickner Lexington High School 11th Grade |
