Young Writers Project is an independent nonprofit that engages students to write, helps them improve, and connects them with authentic audiences in newspapers, before live audiences, and online. YWP also publishes an annual anthology and “The Voice,” a digital magazine with YWP’s best writing, images, and features. More info: youngwritersproject.org or contact YWP at [email protected] or (802) 324-9538.
This month, we present General Writing responses.
 
Please don’t
 
Please don’t run over that butterfly.
I know it’s already dead and out of its misery,
and nothing can hurt it now.
But please — don’t destroy that beautiful bit of orange lying on this broken, dying world. 
Don’t hurt the butterfly, please just let it be.
Its soul is already shattered, and it feels like mine is, too.
Neither can be repaired.
We will all suffer for a crime we didn’t commit, so please — just let the butterfly stay there in peace.
Please don’t drive over it,
but let its wings continue to be a testament
to the beauty that was there before.
Allow its bent body to stay together
a little longer,
please.
Don’t hurt it
more than someone else
already has.
Please,
don’t hurt me
more than someone else
already has.
Vivian Ross, 14
Middlebury
 
Secretly written in French class
 
Fold your love into a napkin and leave it on the porch for a lonely bird. Don’t address it to a name in quill ink because the stains will leak across the wood, and how would you explain that to your mother?
“I had so much love and no one to share it with; I felt my only hope was to give it away.”
Leave it, or take it. I’ll be sipping tea in my kitchen, waiting.
When you have an answer, tell me slowly, please.
I’m sensitive to bitter honesty, prone to its sting.
Saskia Gori-Montanelli, 15
 Middlebury
 
 
Origami City
 
Lovely, oh it’d be so lovely
if you would come with me.
We’ll take a trip, you’ll see,
down to a place so pretty,
to Origami City —
My fickle-hearted friend,
it’s just around the bend,
so won’t you come with me?
We can run past white paper houses
as if they’ll blow away,
and climb the tallest skyscraper,
you and I —
Oh, won’t it be pretty,
down in Origami City,
where we can watch the stars
from our tiny paper cars
as they flicker above?
Temperamental pal,
won’t you stick around awhile?
I bet I can make you smile.
If you trust me, you will see,
we can be —
So wouldn’t it be pretty,
down in Origami City,
just you and me?
Maddie Donaldson, 15
Monkton