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Words Work Wonders 2009
Eliza Abigail Barton, Grade 7 Bellevue I am from long and tiring chores everyday, my least favorite day, laundry day. I am from crammed old schoolhouses and Fourth Readers, dusty and worn. I am from gazing at typewriters to Stitching my sampler. From salad wafers to Gold Dust laundry soap. Carding the wool, and misbehaving at school. Watching my older sister tighten her corset every morning, seeing her waist get smaller and smaller. I am from marveling at our new oven and secretly reading in the forbidden parlor. I am from chickens pecking at my feet as I collect their copper-colored eggs. The big grandfather clock in the school, which seems to stare me straight in the eye, as I sit on the creaking bench in the back. The sign in the kitchen that says, God is Love. I am from peeking in the tavern to see that magical piano play without the drunken man playing on the keys. I am from eggs in the morning to Kate Smith’s Bake-a-Cake kit. I am from the primary Everyday Arithmetic to the China box in the almost empty China cabinet (all the China is broken.) From Mama’s box of multi-colored buttons to her favorite towel that says, Idaho.