Public School Guests

PUBLIC SCHOOL GUESTS

THE THINGS I TOOK FOR GRANTED

I thought this wouldn’t affect me this hard.
I thought this would be fun.
Staying inside with video games used to sound so fun to me.
I used to hate going outside.
I used to hate when the wind blew against my body.
I used to hate walking down the sidewalks, with my neighbors staring.
I took all of those things for granted.
Now, the video games seem boring.
Staying inside and seeing the world change from a window seems like a
punishment.
Feeling the wind blowing against my body feeling more like a dream.
Walking down the sidewalks and taking in the fresh air of grass is now just a
memory.
All of those things are gone now.
I should have gone outside to see the world change.
I should have appreciated the cool wind blowing against me.
I should have waved at my neighbors with confidence, as I walked down the
sidewalks.
I should have gone to see my friends and laughed freely without a care in the
world.
I should have hung out with my sister and mother when they wanted to see me.
I should have gone to visit my grandmother, when I had the chance…
All of those things are what I took for granted.
And now I am paying for it with regret.

Victoria

P368K Star Academy

INTO THE DARKNESS

More and more the streets around me start look just like I feel, empty.
A portrait of myself now carved into the world.
Constant thoughts of my elders being alright,
thoughts of hoping they live stir in my mind.
It’s a terrible feeling.
Fearing something you can’t even see.

I empathize with my surroundings that are left forgotten.
Our homes have now become cages we long to leave.
They are no longer a sanctuary of freedom,
they are now the only thing we know.
There is nothing left to do, but pray to an uncertain God for forgiveness.

Kateri
P368K Star Academy

CHAINED AND PAINED (A HISTORICAL POEM IN HONOR OF
ABSALOM JONES)

“What tongue, or pen, can compute the number of their sorrows?”
Absalom Jones painfully knew enslaved people’s pain.
Enslaved at birth, sold and separated from his mother.
He personally knew that upon this country, slavery was an inhuman stain like no
other.
Humans sold and pained from birth,
forced to give up life and submit to the chain.
From babies to adults, hearts chained, drained, abused and pained.
Try to run, but you can’t hide your skin.
We’ll find you inside your so-called safe house.
You fugitive, you’ll learn your lesson.
Hunted by day and night, like a beast of the forest.
But he knew it was the hunter who was the beast.
The hunger can take our bodies, but
our minds and souls he cannot take in the least!
Absalom Jones was his name.
His petition to the President and Congress put them all to shame!

Sarah
P368K Star Academy

AS I CLOSE MY EYES

I never knew so many tears could fall from one’s eyes.
So many words could flow so wildly,
so many thoughts could make no sense.
Yet the spitting image of you makes the spitting image of me so vivid,

so now, so flawless.
My life is a puzzle, and you my missing piece.
You’re gone, yet I sense your company.
I’ve never felt so connected to you,
my brother, my peacemaker, my lost one.

Irene
P368K Star Academy

LET OUT

Don’t know where to start.
But I need to let everything out,
need to make room for the next sh…
I can’t let out.
Been thinking for awhile.
Why am I still breathing,
when the only thing I’ve been wishing is not to be breathing?
Lying in bed in the dark,
thinking to myself, what’s next, am I going to be gone, or still breathing?
Lost so much hope, can’t even believe it!
Been done for the longest, can’t even wake up in the morning.
Feeling like I’m in the dark, when really I just wanna be sleeping.
My body’s gotten so weak,
probably because Pops treats me as a joke.
All I want is some love, and some hope.
But maybe that’s too much, cause I don’t know how to love or trust.
Been scared for the longest that I will lay in some dust and turn into rust.
But then, I remember God will soon make everything shine, like a new dime.

Zaira
P368K Star Academy