Stone Soup

Where young artists paint the world with words

The international magazine of stories, poems, and art by young writers and artists. Published continuously since 1973.

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Empty Spotlight

Does anything exist at this hour,
when my footsteps crash,
and my breathing screams?
When every slight movement I make,
Feels like a leap?
When I’m all alone,
my house is quiet.
Outside the streetlights blur,
and twist themselves into shapes that
spotlight on the patch of gravel,
that’s empty
No one is there,
to stand in that spotlight,
and listen to the applause,
of the grass, blowing
in the wind.
And I am inside,
looking out,
at an empty place,
that I wish were
mine.

Empty Spotlight Cora W. Bucher
Cora W. Bucher,13
Missoula, Montana