Quiet Girl is not so Quiet Anymore:

By Zaimarie Vela

Quiet girl walks through the school hallway staring at the tiled floor,

as if it were a map of constellations and astronomic combinations.

(I wonder if she can see the stars in them)

A notebook in her hands,

mysterious eyes peeking through the curtain of curls

as the world passes her by.

Lips following the curve

of each letter written on paper,

nose furrowing in concentration.

(I wonder how many stories she has yet to write)

The English teacher sits in her desk as she calls out to the classroom

“Who would like to go first?”

Quiet girl is not so quiet anymore

as she raises her hand,

stretches her fingers as if she could reach the stars

and says: “I would”.

For the first time, the world held its breath

birds perched themselves in the windowsill,

the stars of the universe stood still

trying to listen to what she had to say.

She spoke in verses, stanzas and metered rhymes

for Poetry was her mother tongue, her motherland.

But, it was the way she held the universe in her hands

as words sprouted from her arms like the radiance of the sun.

Her voice drew all the undiscovered constellations in the universe to the tip of her tongue

as the quiet girl spoke in a dreamlike lull

that demanded you to pause and listen.

Rose tinted cheeks.

A shy smile.

A pencil and a verse.

Quiet girl was not so quiet anymore

as she had found her voice.

We would like to congratulate Forest Trail Academy student Amanda Britten on the publication of her poem in the Aruban Education Plan 2030!