From BRIDGES Center for Grieving Children

Fiona(5)

I love you Cori and Blakey, they died after Annabelle was born

Death

Death is like a train leaving.
I feel like a leaf
just coming off a tree
I feel the color of blue inside.
I feel the wind blowing me away.

Death is like dirty air in the sky.
I feel like a train just stopping.
I feel like a red bird just flying,
and feel like a cold ice cube
just melting in the sun.

I feel like a flower just dying,
and feel like a rain drop
just dropping off a tree,
and feel like a train leaving,
and I feel like a dog just getting up,

and feel the color
of a blue raindrop

Briana

1st Grade Melanie Moore's Class Orca Elementary School in a poetry residency with
VICKY EDMONDS

My Aliveness

My aliveness is a bird
I like to swoop down
close to the ground,
then I speed up to the clouds,
past the tree tops.

I still wish I could go higher,
then the sky and my soul
could never fall.

Morgan

1st Grade Melanie Moore's Class Orca Elementary School in a poetry residency with
VICKY EDMONDS

SILENT HURTING HEART

"Oh, nothing's wrong," she smiled
and said grinning from ear to ear.
The frown that just was on her face
seemed to disappear.

But deep down where secrets are kept
the pain began to swell.
All the hurt inside of her
just seemed to stay and dwell.
All the pain in her heart
was too much for her to take.
Pretending everything's O.K.
is much too hard to fake.

She'd duck into the bathrooms
and hide inside the stalls
because no one could see her tears
behind those dirty walls.
She was sick and tired of losing
and things never turning out right.
She had no hope left in her.
She was ready to give up the fight.

She wiped away the teardrops
put a smile back on her face,
pulled herself together and
walked out of that place.

Life went on and things got better.
She thought that was a start.
But still no one could see inside
her silent hurting heart.

By Dayna Erickson Seventh Grade Student 5/2/91