left to bears
Ophelia Baker | Young Artists Issue | Poetry, Winter 2026
snow underfoot
styrofoam
crunches
my bones rebel
back to that
daydream of
powder beneath
bare feet—
i go inside behind
back to my screen
outside forgotten
left to bears
and beasts
coconut lotion then
woolen
socks, drawer
left open
so you can come and
go whenever you want.
______________________________________
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“Just as a trace fossil alludes to a bigger story, locking the object in time, these two poems in particular are snapshots of my own messy navigation through complicated feelings about a break-up. I wrote them while careening towards bitterness. I craved to create something which I could leave behind for them to “find," an impression of how I really feel.”
Ophelia Baker is a senior at Wheaton North High School, and will be majoring in Journalism and Chinese at DePaul University in the fall. She placed 1st and 2nd in poetry at the DuKane Conference Litfest in 2025, and won Critic’s Choice for poetry in 2024. She and her sister have shown their rebuilt 1968 Dodge Charger at MCACN two years in a row winning the Future Generations' Fabricator Award and the Gilmore Car Museum's Sponsor Pick. Daily cappuccinos and cuddles with her corgi mix, Mr. Wiggles, are non-negotiables.
left to bears
Ophelia Baker
Young Artists Issue | Poetry, Winter 2026
snow underfoot
styrofoam
crunches
my bones rebel
back to that
daydreamo f
powder beneath
bare feet—
i go inside behind
back to my screen
outside forgotten
left to bears
and beasts
coconut lotion then
woolen
socks, drawer
left open
so you can come and
go whenever you want.
______________________________________
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“Just as a trace fossil alludes to a bigger story, locking the object in time, these two poems in particular are snapshots of my own messy navigation through complicated feelings about a break-up. I wrote them while careening towards bitterness. I craved to create something which I could leave behind for them to “find," an impression of how I really feel.”
Ophelia Baker is a senior at Wheaton North High School, and will be majoring in Journalism and Chinese at DePaul University in the fall. She placed 1st and 2nd in poetry at the DuKane Conference Litfest in 2025, and won Critic’s Choice for poetry in 2024. She and her sister have shown their rebuilt 1968 Dodge Charger at MCACN two years in a row winning the Future Generations' Fabricator Award and the Gilmore Car Museum's Sponsor Pick. Daily cappuccinos and cuddles with her corgi mix, Mr. Wiggles, are non-negotiables.