Kristiana Letourneau

If not for words, would we still have questions?
Could we think, if our language was lost?
I sense a change already, falling backwards
Forever I am plummeting from a higher elevation
Too afraid to open my eyes.

If not for breath, would we still have air?
Can life grow and change without oxygen?
As my lungs expand, I raise my eyelids slowly
But as always, I only see what I want to see
Too afraid to face the honesty of truth.

The moon is my ghost, as I land softly
I leave no footprints on its cratered surface
One question at a time, one breath after the other
Though I am no magician, I still feel the magic
There is life all around me, holding me up.

Natural Disaster

By Kristiana Letourneau
Mount Abraham Union High School, Grade 10

For over a week
Your lifeless body lay
Trapped beneath a mountain of rubble
The only remains of what was once
Some kind of store, with a church in the back.
What did this building mean to you?
Perhaps you worked there, at the store
Selling hardware, all kinds of marvelous tools
Providing people with the means
To start, to build a strong foundation for a new life.
Or maybe you were a sinner
Your soul in dire need of saving
You wanted to rush right through that store
Into the church, searching for someone
You needed to pour out the truth
Separate it from all the lies
Needed an ear unknown to you
To tell you everything would be alright.
But perhaps this building was only that:
A building, and you simply sought shelter
As the winds whipped faster around you.
They saw your hand reaching up
From amidst the broken brick
You never made it inside that day.

believing
it seems to me
is the root of all knowing
for what i have found
is worth far more than all i have lost
what once i took for granted
i now embrace each day
like a breath of frigid air
on a morning laced with ice
you magnetize me into
delight so deep and dark
you are swirling, yes
with all the light of things unknown
all of you which
i have pulled from dreaming
to become the reality beneath
the heavy lids that open to wonder
enchantment; surely you know
for your spell is as natural
as the garden which flourishes
in your heart planting sunlight
and bittersweet promises
too much for a wanderer to hold
yet he stops and he stares
as do i, for the day
breaks as surely as you
never, far more than this
your edge to fit with mine.