Arshia Ramesh, 10Overland Park, KS The Dust Cloud Arshia Ramesh, 10 There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. The air quality from the Sahara Desert dust cloud was rated over 350 in Kansas. Which was twice as bad as it was last time. I feel like we are prisoners in our own home, not able to go out or open any doors and windows. We have not had a breath of fresh air in exactly one month and 27 days. I feel as if the days have all blurred into one. I want to push open our front door and run outside. The only contact with the outside world was when our groceries were delivered by a man wearing a gas-proof mask. Also, Kansas’ crops have been dying since the air quality is so dangerously low. I have not felt this bored in my entire life. My older sister, Shasha, and I have been doing our nails and putting on a fashion show to pass the time. I don’t know how much longer we are gonna be stuck at home, but I hope it will be over soon. It’s the next day. Mom said that school is starting in September, but this year is going to be an online school. I felt like I was gonna cry. I did not want online school I wanted to meet people I wanted to learn in a classroom, but then again I was not surprised. Even school was going to be taken away from me. Last year school was cut short because of COVID-19. Now it was like there was not going to be any school at all. I ran to Dad: he always has a habit of making me feel better. “Dad,” I said, “Mom said that there is gonna be online school, but I just really want to go to school and sit in a classroom and learn there.” “I know sweetheart, but we don’t have a choice, we have to keep you safe” Dad told me. There was that word that meant so much but always seemed unfair. I have been reading the news. The experts say that they have got control of the dust cloud and soon they are going to move it, but that also has a bad side: the cloud would just go to one of the states around us and make other people suffer. I don’t know which one is better. I hope the government chooses the right decision.
COVID-19
Daily Creativity #107: Write a Dialogue Between Three Friends
Write a dialogue between three friends going on a picnic.
Gone, a poem by Lyla Hershkovitz, 10
Lyla Hershkovitz, 10Valley Glen, CA Gone Lyla Hershkovitz, 10 Gone She drifts away Crumbling As I hold her hand, it crinkles Lifeless Drained She says something I cannot understand, Maybe because I’m not thinking Fluids drip out of full bags, The nurses detach the suctions As if they want her to melt away Her ring slips off, I don’t catch it It’s like being a baby and wanting to tell your mother you love her It’s like not being able to express I get chills, and my stomach drops The beeping of a pumping heart monitor stops We’re done
