Poetry 99: kids winners

First place

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My eyes shine

In the night.

Every pet

Has a owner.

-Dragos Douglas-Voroneanu, 5, Chico

Though the kid with arguably the coolest name has a natural talent for saying a lot with a few words, the Blue Oak Charter School first-grader says that writing is not his favorite activity—that would be “doing backflips on my bed!”

Second place

A-B-C

A

Black

Cat, named Lucky

Dashed through my legs to his bowl to

Eat, but un-

Fortunately it was

Gone.

How could that be?

I

Just didn’t

Know where

Lucky’s bowl had gone

Miaou, miaou. He cried.

Now, hurry up

Or I’ll eat your

Pinky.

Quickly I found the bowl

Right on the fridge.

So I moved it

To the floor

Under his

Very nose

Where he e-

Xamined the food and said,

You made it smell like

Zebra poop.

-Mona Hendriks, 10, Chico

This is the second year in a row that Mona has been chosen for Poetry 99. Last year, she took home third, and this year she placed second with one poem and received honorable mention for another. When she’s not drawing and writing poetry for her personal chapbooks, she enjoys singing, sewing, climbing trees and playing with friends.

Third place

The Tale of a Falling Leaf

I sailed above trees,

Riding currents of light.

I slowly descended to end my flight.

As I landed in a green expanse, I saw ripples go forth from where I had descended. Cold and wet I was in a pond.

-Cyrus Charles, 10, Grass Valley/Oroville

Cyrus is no stranger to writing contests, having also had his poetry published in a book for the Appelley Publishing Contest. Though he lives in Grass Valley—where he enjoys playing basketball, snowboarding and raising his three goats and three sheep—he also spends a lot of time in Oroville with his grandparents, who encouraged him to enter this year’s Poetry 99.

Honorable mentions

Cats Jump

Cats jump really far.

With legs like a rubber band,

they jump tree to tree.

-Ever Viers, 7, Chico

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Beautiful dancing

with my sister

in the sun.

Crash.

It starts to rain.

-Ava Schroeder, 7, Chico

Fall

Colorful leaves and cold winds

Warm clothes and bare feet

A black cat stalking a squirrel

Licking his lips, hungry for meat

Sweet smells and smelly feet

Running girl and leaping fall

Crunching leaves, squirrel leaves

That makes fall

-Mona Hendriks