Lakewood Elementary sixth-grader Lauren Watson from Shannon Knowles’ homeroom recently was awarded first place at the Louisiana Young Authors State level. Below is a copy of her award-winning poem:

The Flower Girls

How many did see a thorn as a rose?

Is a problem that suddenly arose

In our small little garden in front of a shed

The ones who withered listened to what they said.

Beware the Flower Girls, pretty and nice

For on the inside is a cold block of ice.

In the beginning, the Girls

They were dull, boring weeds

But bullying helped them grow

For on sorrow is what they feed.

Dried out from all their torture and tears

You’re the one that almost nobody hears.

Walking alone through our garden one day

Surprised to hear one of them say,

“I was a Flower Girl, a horrible weed

But now I’ve changed that nasty seed

Those words I said I’ll always regret

And the things that I did, I will never forget.”

When a Flower Girl, one from the start

Opened up and had a change of heart

She showed us something, now everybody knows.

There’s no difference between a real girl and a rose,

And after all that we have seen

That beautiful bully is the cold hearted weed.