Little house in the big woods

by Nina Sly

Dear little house in the big woods of Vermont
The whole thing made of wood, no nails.
My Nana told me that, as I lay at her feet,
My belly filled with chocolate cake. 

The old creaky table,
Always crammed with loved ones,
All scrambling to get just a single bite
Of my Nana’s
Delicious food.
Where I played Bananagrams
With my mom and her three siblings.
I laughed and laughed
And stayed up,
Way past my bedtime. 

The loft,
Where my cousins and I lay
When our legs were too tired to stand
And our voices to hoarse to yell
Our bodies warm and cozy,
Snuggled under piles of quilts and blankets,
Whispering secrets into the night 

Above my Nana’s garage,
My uncle built her a studio.
It was always messy
Filled with tiny hands
Covered in paint
And the old fashioned
Baby high chair,
With one of the arms broken off
So if you sat just right
You could draw for hours
And the hundreds of shades of
Glass...
Piled on tables and chairs
It was so shiny
And very hard
To not touch it
And whenever I did
I was met with
“No! It's really sharp!” 

And my Grandma’s dog,
Who eats
Deer poop,
Chases squirrels
And barks at any car
The dog who everyone complains about
But really
We all love him. 

My favorite part:
The woods
Which my sister and I,
Call Wildwood
Where we spent hours defeating trolls and meeting fairies.
Once my cousin and I
Went so deep into the woods
And saw a wolf
We ran back
Excited to tell our
Frightening tale
All the adults brushed it away
And said
“It was just a dog”
They didn’t understand, those boring old grownups
But my Nana did 

My Nana,
With her kind eyes
And soft
Warm, wrinkled
Hands
Her smile, surrounding
Her house with love
I’m from all these things
And all these things
Are me.

Nina Sly

I love writing about nature and things I love, my favorite color is black, I love to play soccer and basketball.