First prize 10 and under
Arlo Carraher, age 8Sebastopol, CA
Children of the Sea
The waves crashthe sun soarsseagulls peckat the rocky shores
Under the rockscrabs scuttle and slidemaking their homesclose to the tide
Schools of fishswim to and frotheir colors give the watera beautiful glow
The shark hunts its preyunder the watersometimes a crabor a simple sea otter
Seaweed and kelpfloat by in the tidean octopus follows, sees meand goes back to his hide
I glide on the surfI swim in the waterI see a big fishI jump like an otter
First prize 11 and up
Henry Ehlers, age 17Whitefish Bay, WI
Subsurface Seas
One journey’s almost at an end; I must at last be near the ocean mysteries that lie beneath Europa’s icy crust. My melting-bores break through to briny seas no human could explore: too far, too deep. Machines make better scouts. My carapace (and all within) is sterilized to keep invading microbes from this precious place.
I find volcanic rifts
