For Children

Lily Panero

Distance Learning

2021 5th & 6th Grade Poetry Winner

While away from friends,
I learn the truth.
I find myself in a quiet room.
As I get up, I wait for the

sound of sirens and blares,
but all I hear are birds chirping.
And suddenly I remember
why I am here, not there.
It is hard to put into words,
but 
the peacefulness is what is
strange. 
I think of the here and the
there, 
the world inside and out and
inside out. It truly has been flipped.
My home is now my world.

Revolving around itself,
fast and slow at once.
I learn that distance learning
means thinking 
alone.
The thing I learn is myself.