Recently author/poet Beth Kephart had a poetry contest on her blog and Jill Santopolo, senior editor at HarperTeen was the judge. To  my surprise, I won! I thought I would repost the original poem here.

It was written when I began to work on my latest MG verse novel MTLB. I had stalled on that book for a while but now I find myself thinking about this character again and wanting to get to know him a little bit better.

Searching for the boy
I find him
not running
not hiding
but standing
up
for someone who is
not him
for someone who is
like him
for someone who
doesn’t know
how
to stand up for himself.

Not recognizing
their very sameness
he fights
for what
he
doesn’t want
to be.

© Susan Taylor Brown, 2009

Irene Latham has the round-up for this week’s Poetry Friday.