1. Flowers
Li Mengxi (11, Xiaohe Poetry Club)
For whom do flowers bloom?
By whom are they praised as “excellent”?
When flowers fall, who will pity them?
For whom do they strive all their lives?
2. Returning Home
Chen Yuyao (10, Xiaohe Poetry Club)
The city is filled with tall buildings;
The countryside has green mountains, clear waters, singing birds and fragrant flowers—
Such is the contrast.
Even if I can never step out of the mountains,
I am still willing.
3. Sweet Osmanthus
Liu Zihan (12, Xiaohe Poetry Club)
Huh? Can you smell it?
This lingering fragrance—
Whose is it?
Huh? What’s that?
Wow, it’s sweet osmanthus!
This rich, dense scent—
Fills every corner of our house.
I won’t allow it: no one should fail to smell the osmanthus yet.
Because the osmanthus wants everyone in the world
To catch its faint sweetness!
4. Loss
Meng Lianghua (11, Xiaohe Poetry Club)
My dad has uremia.
If one day he’s gone,
I’ll be so sad.
I’m scared of losing my friends and other family.
When I grow up, I want to be a soldier—
To guard my friends,
Guard my family,
Guard the country.
5. Ode to Beans
Zhang Yuxuan (11, Xiaohe Poetry Club)
Beans, beans, beans—
The little bean vines
Climb up the frame.
After autumn passes,
I’ll help Mom harvest mung beans.
6. Why It Has to Be Glutinous Rice Balls
Su Moyan (10, Gongyelu Primary School, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province)
If only you were the moon—
You could hang high in the sky.
Being a bird’s egg would be nice too,
Hatching into a bird that flies far away.
Even being a ping-pong ball works,
Bouncing and spinning happily.
Being a gem would be even better,
Worn on the king’s crown—
Who would dare to offend the king?
But you just have to be glutinous rice balls.
Sigh, I always want to gobble you up in one bite.
7. Socks
Li Qiaoyu (8, Gongyelu Primary School, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province)
Once I had lots of colorful socks—
With little tigers, little crocodiles, all kinds of designs…
But I often wore
A red one on the left foot and a green on the right,
Ne Zha on the left and Ao Bing on the right.
Later, Mom had to replace them
With a pile of identical white socks.
No matter how I mix them, I can pretend they’re a pair.
8. Little Bee Takes a Bath
Xue Ziyang (9, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province)
The little bee takes a bath in the flower—
Tosses left, glances right.
What is it looking for?
Oh, it’s searching for nectar shampoo!
The greedy little bee,
After bathing,
Carries two buckets full of shampoo
And heads home.
9. The Wind That Loves Sleeping
Xue Jiayi (9, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province)
The naughty wind
Loves sleeping.
When it sleeps,
It loves snoring.
One snore—
Brings a late spring cold.
10. A Rabbit’s Words
Xue Yaozong (9, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province)
Don’t laugh at my short tail—
It’s actually my advantage.
You don’t know:
When enemies come,
It won’t happen that
My body gets into the hole,
But my tail is still stuck outside.