-Kristian Alfonso, Grade 12

Elapsed time of call: 1:16
He tells me that I swing my arms when I run.
I tell him I like my space
and it keeps cars from hitting me.

I ask him if he's tried it before
and he says only in Allendale
because there are sidewalks.

Here we have no sidewalks,
no fire hydrants,
we let things burn here.

Elapsed time of call: 3:33
He asks if it is raining where I am,
I tell him only in my mind. He asks
if I had dinner yet and I say
I don't have service.

Call ended.

This is the twelfth runner-up in READ magazine's 2008 Ann Arlys Bowler Poetry Contest. Check back every day through May 1 to see 14 fabulous student poems. Did you enter? One of them could be yours!