Their House, Piece # 5

Early on a cloudy day,
The family came home,
With hopes and dreams,
To a strong house, that
They built their life around

But now, that’s forever gone
The family looks on,
A house of fire stands now
Weak in front of them
Their house, lives
That’s burning to the ground

Smoke fills the air
The house begins to fall
Sounds of disaster and then
Crash, the family’s lives disappear

A house, their house, lies in ruins
Their dreams forever gone
Even fire has done wrong

Hemmingway Piece

It was a cool, brisk morning, much unlike the weather I was used too in the states. I sat on a small, wood bench and every few minutes I felt a heavy, cold breeze smacking me in the face, as I tried to stay warm. I didn’t need to move to find life as people and dogs and birds filled around the interior of the park near this large fountain.
Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere broke, as I heard two men yelling nearby. “That’s a terrible idea.”
“Well, do you have a better one?” the tall, broad man replied.
“Uh maybe we should just call the whole thing off,” the very young looking man answered.
“Do you want more of the profit? Name your price!”
“No, that’s not it at all.”
“How about 30 percent?”
The tall man seemed to be getting angry. I moved a little closer in curiosity.
The young man thought for a moment and said, “Mike, we gotta get another person.”
“No DJ, that’s too dangerous.”
“It’s the only way I’ll do it”
“We only have three days. You know we can’t wait any longer.”
“We just need someone to guard the post incase we need to take another route. That doesn’t have to be taught.”
The DJ character began to yell, “BUT YOU EXCPECT US TO FIND SOMEONE HERE IN CANADA AND--” His voice echoed across the park and he had realized that everyone was now staring at them. After a few minutes of just standing there, the young man finally spoke.
“I thought we were suppose to keep a low profile-”
“Shut up…we are doing a good job so far”
“Alright, lets go get some food. I can’t think on an empty stomach.”
“Fine, but we’re almost out of money…we gotta be careful.”
The two men began to walk away towards the North end of the park. For some reason, I had the crazy idea of leaving the safety of this wood bench and following the men to find out more. I had my intentions set as I finally got up and also walked quickly to the North end of the park.

Characterization Piece

I sat quietly in class, staring at the chalkboard as the teacher went on and on in her monotonous ways. Suddenly, the door swung open and a man none of us had ever seen before appeared. The whole atmosphere of the room immediately changed completely. The teenager, seventeen as I would learn later, entered the room with a big grin across his face. The boy, without saying a word, strolled towards an empty seat in the back. He seemed to have a hop to his step as he walked with his long hair moving every such way under his large flat-brimmed hat. This seemed to make me sick to my stomach. It was when he sat down that I realized the whole room had been staring as well, not in disgust, but in curiosity. Only the teacher seemed to know what was going on.

As my mother would have put it, the boy dressed a little bit differently than others from North Salem High School. He wore bright pink and yellow shoes along with his baggy, dark-blue jeans. The hat, now that I could see it up close, was white and yellow and contained a logo of the Washington Nationals, a terrible baseball team from Washington that nobody from New York would ever root for. After a few seconds, the boy removed the hat and his long, curly, and brownish hair was uncombed and jutted around in all different places, but it didn’t seem to bother him one bit. Then, out of surprise, but happiness, the bell rung and everyone went on with their day, as I still wondered about the unpredictable event that had just so quickly occurred.

North Salem Setting Piece

North Salem is a small, but unique town, with high mountains and horse farms through out. I remember the winters when I would step outside and become engulfed by the cold, thin air. However when I took a moment and studied the outside world, the beautiful North Salem winters was uncovered. As my bus slowly drove along the windy roads, I admired the clean, not yet walked snow that lay there gently from the last snow storm. Snowmen and frozen over ponds and lakes were found almost anywhere you went. However, with all this said, the summers are what I loved most about North Salem. I remember my friends and me hanging outside every second we could, no matter how hard or long the blazing sun continuously beat down upon us. The warmth and peace from the morning sounds was unlike anything else. As people would walk through my neighborhood, dogs would bark and the birds would always follow.