Crack the spine loudly.
Savor the pages fragrance
Consume the content.

Turn the pages slowly.
Continue reading aloud.
Voice calls me away.

Return to the book.
Curling up to read again
The page comes to life.

When I think of Iowa,
I think of cattle,
I think of the rattle under the road,
driving by humble abodes.
I imagine cornfields,
I imagine barns,
driving by the farms,
I hear the rumble of tractors,
the thunder in the sky during summertime,

i, the definitive
the only you in the world
i am and you are individual
we are separate
we are absolute masters
of our individual perceived universes.

Seeing out onto the entire field and beyond,
Like seeing out onto a battlefield during a war
While being guarded by the tools of ignorance,
Being the catcher like the general of the team.

I am an athlete,
trying to train hard;
to reach the top.

SMACK!
I get knocked down,
but then I get right back up.

To continue on.
To be a champion.
I am an athlete.

If only that person were on the same planet.
If only that person were in the same hemisphere.
If only that person were in the same continent.
If only that person were in the same nation.

The start of the race isn’t always easy
They say to just put one foot in front of the other
Then repeat
How can you repeat that when you’re racing to find yourself?

I have been told
I am genuine
By my teachers
By my friends
By my family
When I was younger I wanted a different word
Humorous, pretty, or courageous
Now that I am older
I have realized
The word genuine means

I walk through halls, the halls of a school. 
It’s a lot different than it was
Just five weeks ago.

I now know quite a few kids now,
They thought of me as the new kid,
The outsider, I don’t know if they still do.

There was once a bright, new, shiny car
with a big engine and all a child’s wildest dreams within.
This noble stallion would speed through all the others,
roaring by them like a lion chasing its prey
through its black-floored, circular jungle.

In my poem “Out of this World,” I explore the theme of oppression and the ways in which Leonard Peltier’s Prison Writings and Rachel Zucker’s “Paying Down the Debt: Happiness” evidence this central theme.

Who wishes...
she could live in the sunny, tropical Bahamian world for a summer
she could experience the ear-popping adventure
on an airplane
going place to place
visiting the breathtaking sights around planet Earth

I Wish
To create new and innovative objects
For the joy of finding a new building block of the universe
To write the published wonder that will spread throughout the world
To smell the delicious food in front of me, soon to be in cookbooks everywhere

I wonder.
I wonder who the person I’ll become in twenty years will be.
I wonder if I’ll be helping someone in desperate time of need,
or saving someone’s life on an empty street.
I wonder if the mountains I climb

lightly sunkissed skin and bright grey blue eyes
sympathetic, funny, crazy
daughter of a caring, loving mom named Carmen
who loves…
making new memories
gaining more friends
and…
laughing so hard my stomach hurts
who fears….

I Wish I could travel across the world seeing different
places and meet different people,

I Wish I could travel through time and space seeing
different times and worlds,

I Wish I could fly and explore the sky and all its wonders,

Of all the questions,
one stands out.
Who do you want to be?
I want to be someone whose life is overflowing with adventure.
I want to travel and explore.
It would be great to see monuments as bold as stars.

Standing in the middle of the stage
microphone taped to my face
singing my heart out

Handcuffing the mass murder who
has been loose for decades
lowering his head
into the cop car

I am color.
When I score the winning goal in the soccer game,
I am a sparkling yellow that is as bright as the sun!
Sometimes, I have a rough day,
And I feel like a despondent blue that is as dark as the night sky.
Other times,
I get as red as lava

It’s hard to find who I am.
I know this could take long.
What sets me and others apart?
Where do I choose to stand?
I want answers to appear like the bang of a gong.
Reaching down into my heart,
or searching up above.
Finally at last, I find a song.

When racial slurs are used against you
When people leave you out because of your skin color
When people look at you because of your skin
When you know you’re different
When someone spits at you because of your skin
When your own family won’t talk to you

I hate
being short
the feeling of being left out
how I have to say stuff in front of everyone
answering questions in front of people even though I know it
how I don’t know stuff
I hate
how sometimes,
I’m mean,
to some people and pets

Life has been a roller coaster,
it’s had missing tracks,
and breakdowns,
and plenty of bumps,
but I don’t stop.
I don’t stop in the middle of the ride,
even though there might be a downfall.
But I’m not saying there hasn’t been high places,

The first box of society is the family, were born into, the box referred to as home, where we are made and broken. Willingly kept within four lines, that we’ve been conditioned of what boundaries, can and will not be crossed.

I’m hanging from the edge.
Nothing stands between me
and falling but my own waning strength.
What if I fall? What if I seriously hurt myself?

Stop bugging me
Stop discriminating
Stop calling me names
Stop the physical hurt
Stop shoving
Stop picking on me
Stop bringing me down
Stop laughing
Stop the breaking
Stop being a jerk
Stop the pain
Stop the hurt

You could be a picture
Of gleaming perfection.
Indeed, an orchestra,
Of human without sin.
The world at your whims,
Subject to your knees,
Yet you ask nothing of them,
For every person sees,
That you are perfect.

I am an ordinary school girl,
I have homework,
I have assignments,
I have essays,
and I have tests.

Talking with others
feeling so very different
never quite the same

Jokes at my expense
The others laughing so hard
Try and fail to smile

My smile is broken
Wanting to sprint far away
Please just be quiet

I am but a girl with scars,
Not those that are seen,
The kind buried beneath it all,
I am but a girl with a dream,
Like any other you will see,
I am unique,
But still like any other,
I’ve been thrown,
And hit,
And threatened,