By Kavya Krishnamurthy
Ninth grade
The following is Kavya's award-winning poem from the Penumbra Summer Writing Contest.
this girl is beautiful.
not because of the way shadows slip gracefully into the soft contours of her cheeks or because of the way her hair falls over face as if fluid.
but because of the way she can laugh a twinkly laugh even when tears stream down her skin which lies above miles of painful thought.
and because of the way she frowns with the ends of her mouth curved up so she appears to be smiling even when she can only hope for the ability to do just that.
and because of the way she listens to me with deep, brown eyes that make me melt from the inside-out even when her mind is louder than my voice will ever be.
and because of the way she thinks about why we are the way we are and how beautiful it is that even though we are so small, we feel so much.
and i think my feeling is quite beautiful and a bit much even though she would not believe me if i told her it how often it existed.
and i think that she is quite beautiful even though she does not.
i think that she is quite beautiful especially because she does not.