Hillcrest High School - Impact Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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CHINAMAN ' S DAUGHTER From the ledge of my window I can see across the street To the steps of the restaurant. A little Chinese girl sits Laundered, folded Neatly upon the steps. Her arms make a ring around her knees. Now she is standing, Taking measured serene steps Towards the curbstone. She wears blue stockings Such as I have not seen upon the children Of this country And her shoes are black and thick To hold her. She picks a piece of paper from the gutter — Strange, it is the same violet as the flowers In her hair. She picked them back behind her father ' s kitchen Where somehow they grow through the grease. Her toothless father raps upon the window Calls — Come in now. You too big to sit on steps at night When I got customer. They notice you. Her longing fingers fashion Shape of freedom bird of violet paper. Coming Papa. Just one minute. With the trust of love Her hands release him to the wind. You too are grown From smallness Little bird, It is time. POEM TO A CHERRY BLOSSOM Does He keep your thoughts, His art Quiescent like a forgotten flower Within my heart? Both blossomed with wanton hope, As a child and rose elope To kiss the celestial thought: Forth from a bud, as if to laugh, And even thus your pastoral epitaph May bloom. Thou may blush For love of God an d life is lush. by Larry Weisz 13E

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First Place - Junior Prose THE BLACK SWAN Only a faint rustle of leaves can be heard as I slip through the dewy foliage. A chickadee sings out welcome to the forest creatures and his voice piercingly echoes against the blue-grey mountain peaks. I can hear the tongues of water licking the musty earth along the river bank and can feel the mist caress my face. The spider spins her web slowly and rhythmically before me. I ' ll pass under the slender bough so as not to mash the silken strands and waste her silver fibres. The river is in my path now and I tend to tread softly lest I break the peace- ful quiet of the dawn . If I dared, I could walk across the stretch of mirror liquid and touch the scarlet limbs of the ancient maple, but I might crease the hazy carpetand end the serene beauty. I sit beside the bank and watch the happy minnows dart beneath the surface world. Then my eyes catch a ripple floating past. Something moving. A faint mel- odic gurgle breaks the stillness. Then a graceful bird slides along the sheet of water. His neck is arched and his feathers quiver in the breeze. It is a blue-black coat that covers his body. He does not notice me for he is edging nearer the shore. Ah, yes. I could touch him now if I did it quickly, but that would ruin this golden moment. In an instant he dives below the surface the waters break a squirrel awakens — -and the sun lifts its face to the world. The mist is gone and the silence broken. The swan appears, glances round , as if to see how he did in waking the world. . .then, satisfied, he turns and disappears into the depths of inky black water. I rise as I hear a cock crow. I wonder if that swan does that every morning? I wonder if he wakes the world??? by Judy Ann Davidson 1 1 D THE FLOWERS Look at the flowers on the hill over there. They are bouncing and swaying without any care, So lovely, so graceful, and so filled with glee. They are dancing and dancing because they are free Free from the heartache and pain and strife That surrounds my world, and fills my life With shadows of gloom, and unbearable sadness, Sadness to know that never again Will the one I love feel sunshine or rain, Or smile or laugh or dance or sing; Never again will she do a thing, For under the earth her body lies, And over her grave the soft wind sighs, And all around her wherever I glance, The little flowers dance and dance. by Kitty Brecker 1 2E 110

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WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF History was my first class this morning. I had had a late night last night, and with the aid of the typically stimulating lecture, voiced in an undulating monotone, I somehow managed to drift off into a sound sleep. My dreams, probably due to the effect of the atmosphere on my subconscious, were very un- pleasant in nature. I dreamt that I had been sent down to the office with another of a long list of crimes to which I had succombed during my school life. My mind wandered as I dwelt upon the fearful and hideous injustices which no doubt awaited me there. I had LANE around the office, CROUCHed inconspicuously behind the leg of a chair. As the minutes dragged on, and my back began to ache, my presence was noticed by one of the office staff. I was pulled out from my secure position, and though I tried to look innocent, I was subject- ed to an exAUSTIN ' interrogation, impreganted with BLACK threats, all of which completely hor- rified me. I spoke up in defense of myself, arguing that society was WONG about me and that as a YOUNG person, I had been victimized by the numerous pitfalls of school life. After a second grilling under flood lamps, I was dizzy and in a HAYES, and on top of that I had a severely AIKENHEAD. I desperately tried to jusitfy my actions by saying that I had been just trying to be one of the BOYCE. Rather recklessly I said that it was a DOHERTY trick trying to condemn me with a bad reputation. In an attempt to appeal to their psychological nature I stated that there was NORTON the MEAGHER with me, other than a basic sence of insecurity. My sparkling defense was countered with dire predictions that I was hopelessly SEASONed in the ways of crime, and that there was not a RAY of hope for me NUNN at all. I persisted in a devastatingly poetical manner that the valley of my life lay before me, a TRUDEL, wherein the path of my life would extend, as straight as an HARROW. At last my previously patient interrogator passed the boundariesof his endurance, and in a fiendish and malicious tone threatened that if I didn ' t start cooperating he would STAPLE my ears to my head and BOLTON a ball and chain about my neck. I was appalled beyond belief by these ghoulish intimidations upon my welfare. I was told with the intolerant flare of a bilingual voice that I already had one foot in LAGRAVE and that I would soon wallow in LEMAIRE of misery and criminal destruction. Before I could regain my breath from these searing remarks I was sneeringly told that they would be willing to CAMPBELL at any odds that I would end my days as some sort of unskilled or unemployed labourer, a HAYseed, a ditch digger, or possibly a PAINTER. Once more unable to regain my composure, I was told that I could get my COTE and leave and that I wasn ' t VITALI important to the school. Almost in tears I heard in the poetical rhythm of flawless English that I had DUNLOPed off my own head with the TAYLORed cut of my recurring criminal actions. These final ghastly metaphors made me feel like the helpless quarry of the heartless HUNTER. My valiant resistance at last defeated, I felt a tingle as the HARRIS on my head stood on end. 1 realized with a deep feeling of injustice that by ADDINALL my unintentional mistakes to- gether it would definitely give the impression that I had behaved BRADLEY. My depressing dream was now interrupted by the sharp, metallic sounds of the teacher ' s ruler coming down repeatedly on the top of my head. This was succeeded by the distressing an- nouncement that I must go to the office and face the consequences. by A-Nonymous