"If I Could Be Water" will be published in the River of Words 2008 anthology, River of Words: The Natural World as Viewed by Young People. Bailey was one of only three Illinois residents to win, and a finalist from amongst 20,000 entries.
If I could be water
I wouldn't be a pond
Muddy and brown,
I wouldn't be an ocean
Big and alone,
I wouldn't be rain
Falling again and again,
I wouldn't be ice
Cold and frozen,
I would be a river
Long, wide and free.