the passage of time

Poetry·Nargi Golashi, age 13 — A young poet finds comfort in mathematical and scientific laws as unchanging truths that connect her to the universe and eternity.

Poetry·Malin Moeller, age 11 — A meditation on how dreams warp time and memory, leaving only fragments and distortions as evidence of the night's passage.

Poetry·Malin Moeller, age 11 — A meditation on how dreams distort time and memory, leaving only fragments and the physical evidence of restless sleep as proof of the night's passage.

Poetry·Abigail Rose Cargo, age 13 — A boat being pulled from water becomes a meditation on the narrow margins between opposing forces—connection and separation, life and death.

Story·Luke Zellman — A five-year-old girl contemplates the nature of waiting after missing a horseback ride, discovering through conversation with her father that waiting gives life meaning.

Story·Francie Neukorn, age 13 — A sixth-grader watches her imaginative pioneer game fall apart when popular kids mock it, realizing she and her friends are growing up and leaving childhood behind.

Story·Annie Strother, age 12 — A five-year-old girl sits by a lake at sunset, contemplating why everything in life requires waiting, until her father helps her understand its purpose.

Story·Ryan G. Braun, age 10 — A 10-year-old recounts Hannibal's ambush of Roman forces at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, detailing military preparations, strategy, and the devastating Carthaginian victory.

Story·Emily Villano, age 7 — A wild white mare evades capture through generations, teaching her foal survival before accepting her own mortality in the crystal mountains.

Story·Sarah Shissler, age 12 — A writer recalls her first trip to Alaska ten years ago, where she befriended a pack of wolves—Lakota, Pike, and Kepa—and witnessed their struggles to survive through a brutal winter.