20
Ebbing
By Zoe Riell
I found two little girls on the beach,
with the tide halfway in; they
were alone and building
sculptures in the mud flats.
I made sure to not
ruin their tiny footprints when I approached,
and asked if they had seen
the hermit crabs.
They said no, so I
took those little girls to see
the hermit crabs.
The three of us marched
towards the ocean, single file,
tallest to smallest.
They wouldn't follow me unless
they could step in my footprints,
they said.
Made me take tiny steps for their tiny legs.
And so I shuffled towards the ocean while they
jumped and skipped.
(the littlest one was always
stopping to collect the littlest
shells)
We found the hermit crabs.
I held one
in front of their noses; made
a scary noise.
They laughed.
I couldn't scare them! they shrieked.
We made it to the ocean and wrote
our names in the mud. Mine,
finished, was ten feet long; theirs
were smaller. They didn't
mind if nobody
saw them.
I shed my jacket to carry their shells.
It was cold, but they danced
on the walk back,
threw sand at me and sang
little songs. We raced
the tide in.
They took their shells and left
me to shake out the sand.
Told me I could go;
"we don't need you
anymore!" Waved
once.
Went back to building,
lining up the new
shells on their mud battlements.
Didn't look back.
And so I shook out the sand and padded
back through the mud flats.
The tide came in; I looked but
I couldn't see them anymore.
"We don't need you," they said, but I
remembered those shells on the battlements,
the footprints inside mine. I felt like
I was needed.
2. What inspires you to write? (or What makes Zoe Riell write?)
3. How has YWP affected your life, (your writing life and your life in general?)
4. As a mentor and long-time YWPer, what advice would you offer new writers on YWP?
5. You are a senior. Do you know what you want to do next year? Do you have a career in mind? Is writing in your future? (If this is too annoying to answer, you can skip it!)
6. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
7. Do you have a literary hero or heroes? Who and why?
8. If you were to describe Vermont to someone who has never been here, what would you say?