Student Publishing Program ::

Siena Hancock

Halfway

The small plant in a pot,

amid sticks and plants broken, strewn about the yard.

The stalk is broken halfway.

I’ve been warned of coming death,

the seedling must lose its other half,

in order to survive the ordeal.

It is green. I think It might still live,

with half breaking away, connected by a thread.

They must separate,

and the bond die.

I leave them be.

They begin to whither in the hot sun,

separating further.

The break from the storm tears the plant apart.

They are dying.

My mother was right, they cannot survive together

and yet I cannot break the stem.

I cannot sever the bond between the two halves

of the sprout.

It could grow again without its other half if I could allow it.

I cannot save it.

I can’t let go.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS, LHS CLASS OF 2012 EDITION]