Denise Busch’s eighth-grade language arts students at Mid-Prairie Middle School recently finished a three-week unit on poetry. This is some of their work.

Grief of a Beautiful Soul

By Kali Miller

Little girl, your face so sweet and innocent.

It breaks my heart to know that you’re no longer with us at this moment.

No one knows why you went so soon and so young.

I miss your silly little grin and your spunky, high spirited, bossy, foxy but caring attitude.

Once you walked with such a lighthearted, confident little manner.

Now you lie here so quiet, still and lifeless, in this tiny little hospital room.

As I watched you lay, I whispered a silent, almost pleading prayer to God.

But he must have had different plans.

For that very afternoon, you took your last and final breath.

The news of your death hit me like a bullet to the heart.

I tried to hide my heartbreak as I watched my mother sob into my father’s arms.

I had never seen my dad cry, he was always sort of a cold, hard man but right there as he watched his little girl die, a small tear made a trail down his face.

It was truly painful to see.

Only seven days later that dreaded day came.

Walking to the casket to look at her was awfully hard but she was so beautiful, so fair and lovely lying there all dressed in a pretty little white dress.

As the two strong men lowered her casket down into the trench-like hole.

I couldn’t stop the tears as I sat there and watched as someone I loved so very much, was lowered down into the ground underneath the dust. 

Abby Marie Miller

Born - 9/14/2010  Died - 7/15/2014

• • •

Lies

By Harlie Gehling

Times so desperate

A time of need and pain

Everyone’s gone

Step into the lane.

Why did you lie?

What do you have to gain

What did you get

From seeing all my strain?

Screams. You’re angry, yelling at me

Telling me to get out of your life

It hurts, but I shoulda seen it coming

You don’t really care about any of my strife

I died that day

My spirit broke and my voice went quiet

My personality stopped showing and I stopped trying

I almost starved myself of feeling, not exactly a healthy diet

I remembered all the times we hung out

How much I trusted you with before that day

Strange thing is even though you hurt me

I came back. Again and again, the options weren’t even things to weigh.

You left me out on a line

Wishing we were still friends

Your new friends suddenly don’t need you,

Oh so now you want to make amends?

Turns out after three years

Of being alone and without any friend

I’m suddenly the only one you have

And you expect me to go back to the way I used to bend.

I was finally happier

After so many years

Finally had a friend I trusted with my life again

Suddenly you come around and I’m back to tears

Shove it down deep inside

Plaster on a fake smile

Listen to your problems

And try to take it by the mile

• • •

Home

By Behla Schmidt

Where home lies love is found

Friendly family faces all around

No secrets left to be discovered

All lies are bound to be uncovered

An escape from the world’s harm

and safe from enemies charm

But the bird must leave the nest

despite one’s doubtful detests

Everything is familiar and well-known

but if you never leave you’ll never know

how it feels to have truly flown

• • •

Storybook Poem

By Haydon Bailey

When I journey in a storybook

And imagine what I’ll find

I know that in a storybook

The world is in my mind

When I think about a storybook

And wonder what will occur

The story of my storybook

Will let me know I’m sure

When I journey in a storybook

And let imagination speak

I know that in a storybook

I will find what I seek

• • •

The Frog

By Karson Grout

I am a frog

green as a tree leaf

I swim in the pond

I eat flies all the time

I can hop twenty feet

I can eat flies, swim, and jump

I am a frog

Ant King

By Pheobe Shetler

A very long time ago

In a land far away

There used to live a mighty ant

So the people say.

He walked all about the land

The king of all he saw

Until one fateful day he came

To a garden wall

“How dare they put this great thing here?”

He said with much disdain

For he could not see the other side,

To try would be in vain.

He had his soldiers pull it down

And as he looked about,

He saw the children laugh and play

And so he threw them out.

He lived in frightful solitude

Without a single smile

A king in a castle behind a wall

For quite a lonely while.

One day he heard the laughter fair

Through the dusty door

And with an anger, full of fright

He ran across the floor.

He saw the children with a shout

“We’ll soon see about that!”

But as he ran to stop the joy,

The old ant was smashed flat.

• • •

Girl

By Libby Peiffer

Her soul is happy.

Her body moving gracefully.

Her mind is calm.

Her outfit is elegant.

Her face smiling.

• • •

Quarantine

By Avery Slaubaugh

“Quarantine,” I say,

Looking around at my walls.

On my bed I lay,

“I can’t have any fun at all.”

“You’ve trapped me inside,

Without any friends.

I’ve texted but no reply,

When will this quarantine end?”

“Right now quarantine,

I should be dancing and singing.

But like a lazy teen,

Here to my bed, I’m clinging.”

“I would like to go outside,

Or hang with my friends.

Maybe go on a bike ride,

and buy myself new pens.”

“Although you are boring quarantine,

And I do miss a lot.

The grass is green,

the air is getting hot.”

“So I will make best of the situation,

and break past the norm.

For this duration,

A new type of fun I will form.”

“Mom is home and we shall bake.

I’ve got homework to do,

I’ve got paints to paint.

I might even try something new.”

“So though you’re not the best,

Quarantine I do have to thank you.

I’m one of the luckiest,

And I’ve learned to be grateful too.”