To be alone

To be alone is my contrite desire

To find myself secluded 

I’ll build my home in the woods beside Walden

Or run away and hide amongst crawdads

Befriend birds and bugs and the little creatures

Hidden in rigid shells

And conjure my own from human debris

Cradled in the feminine embrace of Mother Earth

As she bestows unto me nature’s peaceful splendor 

Walk alongside the masculine push of Father Time

As he leads me willingly in to a beautiful fate

I want to bleed into the ground

Give purpose to my flesh, give life from my body

I can be Mother Earth and Father Time

Watching a garden grow before me

Rowan Martin, Grade 12

Creative Writing Major

"To be alone" won first place in the "Environmental" category of the Congressman Frank Pallone Poetry Contest