Alexa Kunkle | Age: 18 | Runner-up
Description: "A poem inspired by having to move around a lot and how my room."
All of me must fit into cardboard boxes
I whisper goodbye to the eerily now white walls
And off I go again
From place to place
Where I am from is without a face
Plane to plane
I press my hand against the cold glass
Silently, I watch as the place I called home grows smal
As hills become bumps,
And houses the size of ants
I unpack all of me into my third room I’ve had all to myself
I let myself spill on the walls, and stretch over the floorboards
It’s always chilly, but I like it
It’s me, messy in the beautiful way
With the walls plastered in posters
And every surface covered in art
Clothes spill out of the doors
Socks reach out from the drawers
Now I have memorized new sidewalk routes
I have yet again learned how to say hello
I have a new ant sized place to call home