2024 Spring Fling Contest Entry

HOPE SPROUTS

By Danna Zeiger

Word Count: 149 Words

I am participating in Ciara O’Neal and Kaitlyn Leann Sanchez’s SpringFlingKidlit contest.

Special thanks to the organizers for this incredible opportunity. Thanks also to the prize contributors for such exciting potential rewards!

On an unseasonably warm day when it was feeling like spring really was here, my kids and I took one of our nature hikes in a forest. It was during the pandemic, and we stumbled upon an event with hidden fairy houses built throughout the forest--we had to find them! After a long, dark winter--both the typical New England season itself, and the lonely, challenging pandemic--the feeling of spring, and the promise of fairy houses to discover, was magical. As my kids sprinted through the forest laughing and singing, I could only imagine how they were coaxing the fairies out of their winter slumber. But then I realized, it wasn't only the sleeping fairies or the hibernating animals... just like the lone seed, hidden in a dark pocket of the forest floor and waiting for a ray of sunlight to grow towards, I realized that I too had been waiting for a ray of hope.

My kids have always been my sunshine. I hope they'll bring you some through this poem, too.

Deep in a quiet fairy forest,
a little seed
              falls,
longing to grow
despite the winter chill. 

Tumbling through snow,
              rolling
                            under a long-forgotten tiny house,
seeking undiscovered magic.

A hidden treasure,
the seed imagines
what secret plans
lay buried inside.

 Twisty vines for fairy climbing?
              Flower cups for dewdrop drinking?
                            Lofty leaves for daytime dreaming?

The seed nestles,
              sinking
into a pocket of rich, melting soil.

Softening,
shell cracking,
unfurling.

Shoots emerge…
crawling,
              creeping,
finding,
              feeling,
growing,
              grasping.
Roots ready.

But under the dark house,
no fairies
flutter,
              sparkle,
                            or sprinkle fairy dust.

Without light,
the seed will never grow.

Stuck.

Until…
footsteps and giggles approach…
thawing the forest floor
like spring sunshine.

Little hands reach
for a peeking root,
playing,
              patting,
                            tucking the seed into a bed of moss.

Children’s laughter
spreads light across the fairy forest,
shining
as hope
              sprouts
and the seedling
              blooms
welcoming spring.