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VPR's coverage of arts and culture in the region.

Young Writers Project: 'Fields'

This week, Essex Junction, Vermont, writer Maecy Odit shares a series of assigned journal entries.
YWP Media Library, photo by Carmella Clark
This week, Essex Junction, Vermont, writer Maecy Odit shares a series of assigned journal entries.

Chapter 1
Today I am asked to write whatever comes to my mind,
and really nothing is coming to my mind.
So really, my mind is like… a blank field of wheat,
with the wind lightly blowing.
Empty.

Chapter 2
Today I am adding on to this story,
only because once again I have nothing on my mind –
but today there are cows in the field
slowly eating the wheat as if in slow motion.
But they don’t care; it’s as if they are happy to be slow eaters.
They have flies buzzing around their ears and heads,
and I think, How are they not getting distracted by the flies?
I know I would be. Or maybe they are,
but they are just good at hiding it from others.
Or maybe they just don’t want us to know.

Chapter 3
Today there is a scarecrow in the field.
It is new but looks old, limp, and hangs over.
Its hair spikes up as if it were struck by lightning.

Chapter 4
Now the sky is getting dark.
The clouds cover up the sun –
as if the sun were dying, but very slowly.
It rains, then pours, then hails, as if it will never stop.
The scarecrow is as limp as ever now,
drenched and sad-looking.

Chapter 5
The tractor is out for the first time this year,
like the killer of clean.
It drinks it up and spits out the gross black smog
that fills the air forever.

Chapter 6
A crow in the field is scared –
away, far away.

Chapter 7
Today there is a wind.
It takes the field with it.
Gone, away forever.

Chapter 8
The rain washes away all of the dirt.
Gone, forever different.

Chapter 9
The farm is different now.
Now the fields are all dirt.
The fields are empty –
no cows, no crows, no scarecrows.
Empty. Gone. Different forever.

Chapter 10
I think that I understand now.
The field was supposed to be flooded, supposed to go away –
because now, I have new ideas and real thoughts.
This is change.

 

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