Young Writers Project is an independent nonprofit based in Burlington that engages middle and high school students from anywhere in the world to write, to express themselves with confidence and clarity, and to connect with authentic audiences. YWP publishes local writing every week in this newspaper; through YWP’s website, youngwritersproject.org, and monthly digital magazine, The Voice; before live audiences; and with other media partners, including vtdigger.org and vpr.net. YWP is supported by this newspaper and foundations, businesses and individuals who recognize the power and value of writing.

This week’s prompts:

Winter Tales: Selected writing for the annual Winter Tales at FlynnSpace, Burlington, Dec. 10;

Wonder: I wonder why … Finish the sentence. Use it at the beginning or end of a story.

This piece was selected to be presented at Winter Tales by Vermont Stage at FlynnSpace, Burlington, on Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. For information or tickets, go to www.flynntix.org.

Snowflakes

The snowflakes fell, thin crystal structures,

and piled upon each other, lacing

tree boughs, rooftops, the ground, my lashes.

I exhaled a lingering, cold mist,

and trudged with heavy boots through fallen snow

which crunched, a ravishing sound to hear.

I made my way across my backyard

and crossed the fallen fence into the woods,

making a path beside the frozen creek.

I suddenly stopped, and then bent down

and pressed my ear to the top of the ice;

I heard the gurgling of water.

I trudged back in the dark to the door,

teeth chattering as I entered the house

and yanked off my boots and winter coat.

I sipped a warm drink, then went to bed

and lay there in the dark, reliving the day.

Shivers of pleasure crept through me.

The snowflakes fell; they kept falling through

dawn, and midday, and dusk, and dark night,

lacing the trees, rooftops, the ground, my dreams.

Wondering Loudly

I wonder why the sky is blue.

All this time I never knew

why the sky is blue.

Clouds dot the sky like puffy white ships sailing to distant lands, commandeered by Capt. Wind. A crazed skipper, the Wind is, ramming the other ships with impunity. For when the boats collide, they sink into each other, like ghosts, harming not the crew, nor the vessel. Peacefully, they slip out of each other’s intimate presence and go their separate ways.

Why is the sky so blue?

All this time I never knew

why the sky is blue.

Could the sky be blue because — “Um, Will,” my mother interjected, “the sky is blue because the atmosphere scatters the most visible blue light. That is why the sky appears blue to us.”

Oh.

I guess I was wondering loudly.

Daylight Savings

I wonder why we use Daylight Savings Time. It’s always a hassle because we are either gaining time or losing time.

My mom tells me twice a year to change my clock and that if I don’t I will either wake up too early or wake up too late. Once, when the time got changed, I gained more time and I felt good because I was getting an extra hour of sleep. When the time changes again, I will have to wake up (after losing an hour) and I will feel as if I haven’t gotten enough sleep.

I have read that Daylight Savings Time is all about advancing the daylight and I also have read that Daylight Savings Time is very complicated and confusing, disrupting sleep patterns, travel, and sometimes computer software. If we didn’t have Daylight Savings Time, waking up in the morning would be better because our sleep patterns wouldn’t be disrupted.

Why Money?

I wonder why we invented money.

It makes it more challenging to live.

People with more money get more things.

People with no money are starving.

People think that money is necessary.

I think it makes everything more complicated.

But if we get rid of money,

our way of life will change.

And people have trouble changing,

so we have ourselves in a bit of a dilemma.

Money is made of paper and minerals.

We are the ones who have decided to make it have worth.

I believe we can change.

We can turn around, and make things different.

I realize I probably won’t be alive when or if that happens,

and people have made mistakes in the past.

But we can’t think negatively about our past.

We can only look ahead to our future.