from Remember the Flowers
Winner (Poetry) of the 2021 Stone Soup Book Contest

Four years old in late September,kindergarten on a weekday.Sometimes I spoke.Those days were rare.The lunch monitorresolved to help,but finding the kids I’dopen my mouth forwas rolling the dice,again and again.I played with her, I played with him—still no wordscame forth back then.

One day she rolled, and the sides came up even.Go sit with her, she said.I went to the girlby the orange cubbieswith that kind of lunch box opening into a trayof purple plastic containers all linedwith name-tag stickers in loopy lettersand butterflies of pink and blue.I could hear a smile in her voice.And thenI looked up.

Remember the Flowers was released on September 1, 2022.You can order the book at Barnes & Noble or through our Amazon store: Amazon.com/stonesoup.