Author: Jadee

Fear is the thing that haunts you.
It keeps you up at night.
It protects you from hate,
But not from fear itself.
It is the thing that warns you
Of the future and its dangers.
Fear is the black panther.
Love is a feeling
you get when you meet
the one person in your life
who makes you feel whole .
It makes you feel happy.
It makes you feel sad.
It has many meanings.
One is where you feel empty.
Love is the white dove.

I remember it like it was yesterday
Just like smashing my thumb into clay
When I was small, I remember, I liked to play
Like the time I smashed myself into hay
Just like yesterday
When it was May
I remember I left one day
But came back to stay
Just like yesterday
I see my parents pray
“What’s wrong?” I used to say
But then came the best day

My teacher said to write a poem
But my pencil was stolen
And my fingers are swollen
So my poem is unspoken
My pencil just broke
While I’m drinking a coke
And I’m telling jokes
About my folks
And I’m losing hope
So I’m going to finish my poem
My pencil wasn’t taken
And I also like bacon
And I don’t want to go to Akins

She was the girl that no one noticed
The girl that sits in the background.
She was the girl that spent her time reading
While all the other girls went into town.
She was the girl that ate by herself
Would sometimes starve herself too.
She was the girl that needed money
While the other girls wasted theirs on shoes.
She was the girl that never went to parties
Nobody invited her anyway.
She was the girl that nobody cared about
Which is why the girl is here no more.

La isla tiene arena y el sol es caliente.
Hay agua refrescante.
En el mar, el agua es azul.
Y hay Palmas,
Pero quiero ir con calma
El agua brilla.
El sol igual.
La luna llena es linda.
Sin tardar,
Tengo que regresar.
Las estrellas se reflejan en el mar.
Sin más tardar,
Hace frio y el viento suena.
Es tiempo de dormir.

Time slips away, precious water
stirring just out of reach.
The sun melts, light draining
from the windows.
You feel time, you don’t see it.
But you know it’s there, a force
that dominates all worlds,
tearing through the walls of life
made of thin paper.

---

Casis Elementary

4

Pitter Patter
Splitter Splatter
Running through the rain
Thunder booming,
Cars are ooming,
Umbrellas out again?
Lightning flash!
Children dash
Running back inside
Pitter Patter,
Splitter Splatter,
Oh how the weatherman lied.

---

Lamar

6

It’d be a drought
the cracked ground we walk on,
the beating sun pushing us down.
“But it rained a couple of times,”
they tell us, while the heat
is scorching our skin
and dust is in our eyes.
“Get over it,” they tell us
from their green watered lawns.

We sit in the sun baking for generations
waiting for the forever rain,
no trees to protect us.
The trees were never there to protect us.

---

Fulmore Middle School

8

Kenya
A busy, bustling place
My beautiful country
Oh, how I’ve missed you
Oh, how you’ve changed in these six years
Yet I remember the scent of heavy spices and roasted corn
The soft, crumbling ground after the rain
Everywhere you go people talking
To each other in community before my eyes
The complex beauty of languages twisted
Within each other resounding through the town
The rush of everyone with places to be
So many nights I have spent longing to be
With all of my true family
Nyumbani
Yenye nguo na rangi za kupendeza
Ninakupenda sana
Nakushikilia kwenye nafsi ya moyo wangu
Kwa Kunikaribisha mimi kama binti yako
Wewe ni chanzo cha uzazi wangu

Home
So vibrant and colorful
I love you so much
You have a place in my heart
welcoming me as your daughter
for you are my motherland

---

Fulmore Middle School

8