Waiting For the Bell - Emily Lu 

Restless legs shift under desks
as cramped fingers scratch pen across paper.

Strained eyes start to stray from the pages,
glancing toward the summer sunlight peeking

​from the cracks of the drawn blinds
before landing on the clock. But its hands

grow heavy under the weight of our stares,
each second lingering

longer than the last. The room falls
silent as the scribbling ceases

and our hands hover over our bags,
itching with anticipation.

Hungry eyes glimpse back at the light
taunting through closed blinds

as pencils drop into backpacks,
their wooden bodies clacking

while someone clicks a pen open, closed,
open, closed.
Emily explains, "While writing 'Waiting for the Bell,' I aimed to illustrate the restless buzz of students’ anticipation at the end of a long school day."

Emily is in 10th grade at New Trier High School. The editors thought that the sensory details in this poem were excellent and the suspense was something everyone has experienced at the end of a class or a meeting.
​
*Picture provided by Pexels