Department of English

Spring 2008 High School Edition

Out of the Shadows

Laura Andrews
Poetry (11th-12th)
1st Place
Snow Canyon High School
Teacher: Lenore Madden

A train glides across the country side,
     cloaked with night and hugged against the mountains.
          Shaky cars follow suit, dragged along by pins and chains.

               Weaving through the misted fields of grass and flower
          The silent masses sway.
     Left……… then right.
Waltzing carefully in the glow of moonshine.

The train slinks over the ridge.
     Buildings, towers, a factory of sorts.
          A blemish nestled in the fields of white,
               Set inside a barbed wired fence.

The carts slow
Fighting with tracks, their predestined path
The agonizing scream of metal on metal
Cutting through the still of night.

A man leaves the fence
with papers in his hands.
And as the bodies shuffle down the ramp
The pencil in his hand scratches softly.
One….two…three…four…
The air taste like smoke

From the fields, the silent masses sway
     Left…………..then right.
         They wave good bye in the last glow of moonshine

     The final witness to a hundred souls