2013 MONTGOMERY COUNTY
YOUTH POETRY CONTEST

4-6 GRADE RUNNER UP

Priya Padhye
Wissahickon Middle School

Paper Building

Last night,
I built a building out of paper.
It was constructed from the lead of my pencil,
The tremors of my fingers,
And the creativity of a genius, or a madman.
Then, in a rage, like that of a baby when his wish is denied,
I struck down my building.
Down, down, down it fell,
Building blocks tumbling askew.
Should I have known better,
I wouldn't have set it afloat, out the window, like I did then.

And so upon the updraft it fluttered.
My sweat and energy, all of it wasted
Upon the breath of the wind.
I let it fall, fall, fall,
Down into the sewer,
And it was consumed by the pernicious muck
That can only be found in the aforementioned sewer.
And unfortunately, the only creatures that could indulge
In the pleasure that my building held
Were the rats.

Back at home, I was no longer cross
And I lamented the loss of the building I had scorned
Realizing its evanescence
And its beauty,
Though it was just the product of me soliloquizing
And writing down my spoken thoughts,
All at one time.
Though it was just an abstract thought,
Such as the one I am writing down right now,
Something about, something in it-- the essence of it, perhaps,
Seemed magical.
I had nurtured it for nothing more than a few seconds,
Yet for some reason, this was no trivial matter.
A connection had been severed,
And I felt something die deep inside me.
That in itself
Is what perplexes me.

How do you know you've lost something
if it never truly existed?