I sat in the rain tonight, crisp and cool,
I listened to the plopping-lopping of it fall.
I wished, for once, to be a fool,
To not care at all.
I want to be a willow,
Gnarled and wise.
Jade branches like an ocean’s flow,
Make it so soft even when it cries.
Maybe I should be a blade of grass
With shimmering shards of dew.
Shooting up like a piece of glass,
It would live and pursue.
I could be a blood red rose,
Who is free of a vase.
A rose’s charm always grows
They are something to never encase.
I want to be nature,
Beautiful and free
Because plants don’t have to quarantine.
They don’t die of CO-VID 19.
-- Annabelle R., 9th-12th Grade