I.

The ground was white.

We built a snowman with a carrot nose.

I reached to make his smile out of coals.

You said, “Now he’s a happy fellow,”

And you were happy, too.

Mom made hot chocolate with marshmallows.

II.

There were many flowers.

Petals whispered on my skin.

When I went to the meadow,

I picked my favourite:

red.

You: dead.

III.

I swam to escape these

glaring rays.

Mom has been turning pale

Since your heart failed.

I camped out in the backyard alone.

When you would turn off the flashlight—

Where were the fireflies?

IV.

The leaves fall.

Colors change.

Crisp and crack under my feet—

Your bones haunt me.

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Alena Willbur, a senior at Villanova Preparatory School, is from California. She is the editor and journalist for her school newspaper. She is an attendee of the Cambridge Tradition at the University of Cambridge where she studied Creative Writing and edited the literary magazine of Cambridge Tradition called Staircase Voice. She won second place at the Poetry Out Loud competition last year. She served Inklette as a Poetry Editor.