“Creatures” by Joey Gignoux

May 12, 2026

crescendos of chirps call
to each other, swooping, diving, shaking shimmering branches
ground littered with pinecones
pine needles
feathers
dried-up leaves.
the trees throw away
the dead parts of the forest
to the snails and beetles and worms.
but
dead
doesn’t
mean
gone.
to the human, death is the end.
a body stops being here, stops
being useful,
stops.
the trees understand.
you are the mountain and the bugs and the forest debris on the
ground.
what have we traded for
a sense of superiority?
to the bugs, is the sky
the same shade of cobalt?
after all, we’re both
just
creatures.

This poem was written by Joey Gignoux as a 9th grader at Nathan Hale High School, with WITS writer-in-residence Karen Finneyfrock. Performed at the Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series event with Emily Wilson at Town Hall Seattle on May 12, 2026.

Posted in Student Writing Writers in the Schools Support 2025/26 Season

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