Second Place:"Wet Towels (Ode to the Surfer's Dog)"
by Ramona Lea Mahoney.

Third Place: "If You're Happy and You Know It
Howl Out Loud" by Jennifer.

Mom, Can You Help Me?
by Patrece Griswold

Mom, can you help me? I can't get my ball.
You threw it, I followed, it bounced down the hall.
I saw it go in through your bedroom door.
I ran in pursuit, so fast across the floor.
Next thing I know, it rolled under the bed!
I tried so hard to get it, practically stood on my head!
It's right there, so close, only inches away.
Mom, please, can't you help me, just once more today?
I'm barking, I'm whining, I'm digging the rug.
I've just got to have it, Mom please don't be smug.
No, not the one lying next to your chair.
Get off your butt, I want the one under there.
What's that, do I hear you? Are you in the hall?
Are you really coming to get me my ball?
Thank you, oh, thank you, it's right by your hand.
Just reach out and grab it, this suspense I can't stand.
I'm under here with you, I'm trying to help.
Ya just gotta get it, I'm so excited I could yelp!
It's there in your grip now, you're pulling it out.
I knew you could do it, there was never a doubt!
I want you to know that you've brought me such bliss.
I have to reward you with a big sloppy kiss.

Mom? Can we play it again?

Copyright © 1998 by Patrece Griswold.

Wet Towels (Ode to the Surfer's Dog)
by Ramona Lea Mahoney.

No limits.
No fears.
I wonder,
       no sense?

She vaults across waves--
foam spray
"Splash!"

What is she doing?
She knows she can't surf...
Well
I know--
at least,
but I still have to follow.

The hot stuffy car,
her windows wound down,
panting and drooling,
I hate the smell of wet towels.

Copyright © 1998 by Ramona Lea Mahoney.

If You're Happy and You Know It
Howl Out Loud
by Jennifer.

The day I got my new squeaky ball
was the day I howled out loud.

It arrived with a bright red bow
and how it arrived I do not know.

I found it under a giant green tree
that I helped to put together with my family.

I had drug the lights from the box
and they didn't like that very much.

Then I dug in through the tinsel, burrowing and
tunneling with all of my puppy power.

My family jumped and said "What a sight!"
I thought I had done good so I howled out loud.

I went to sleep that very night
knowing that I had done right.

But what I found out that all good puppies should know
is that you shouldn't drag things to and fro
and you should always be a very good dog.

I became a very good dog.

I always listened and shook paws,
I never bit or did wrong and I wound up with a brand new ball.

I had walked down the stairs and waited by the tree for the
rest of the family when a brightly colored bow caught my eye,

I howled out loud because I knew it was for me,
from the little card that said For Taffy.

Copyright © 1998 by Jennifer, a student in Lori Rego's Writing Lab at the Pacific High School in Pacific, Missouri..