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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The First Morning of Winter

It is silent.

Skeletons of trees.
A lonely crow shrieks.
And is gone in a black smudge,
Erased from the sky.

The air is cold melted silver,
Each breath freezes and falls,
Then shatters on the ground.

Blades of grass cocooned in frost,
Crackle when you step on them.

The last leaf falls,
A drop of orange on the white sheet.

Winter is here.

The First Morning of Winter Cammie Keel
Cammie Keel, 13
Boulder, Colorado