Being young is hard;
 often feeling all alone.
 Your hair is a mess
 and your face is
breaking out.
 Being young is hard.
You aren’t quite sure of your friends,
 you’re stressed out;
 don’t know if you’re being “cool”.

She was like a spider.
Walking youthfully and childlike,
on the verge of being crushed.

She was robbed of her innocence,
it was taken away before her prime.
She sat staring out the window,
the tears falling like the rain outside.

What shall be wrong with me?
What shall I fear
What shall be wrong with me
is nothing I fear
For
If I shall fear what is wrong with me
I shall only fear myself
Even though you shall see me
you shall not know.

I am the quiet little Hispanic girl,
Light skinned
people make fun of me
they say I am not the color I’m supposed to be.
But who cares? It’s me not you!

Honestly, if you ever think about it
No one ever knows where to turn,
The corridors are melting into hallways
These hallways are melting into hell.

Life is a never-ending coil
With twists and turns
And you are the one thing that I did not count on.

You are the mistake in a waltz.

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Yeah, I’m a dreamer,
I dream of so many things.

But do you know what separates all
you other dreamers from me?
You all actually work to achieve your
dreams, you
dream about the future and what you
want to become.

Speak in your whispers, yet love me the same,
Wrap me in wings of comfort that tears can't absolve,
See through the struggles were new paths evolve,
your silence lies down beside me with only repetitive breath,
bask in the gentle touch of my fingers caress,

I. Blue chamber 
Take my hand, feel for flesh
beneath the glove, the mask
Catch the notes slipping through
the air (your fingers)
Dance until we die and await the
resurrection
Listen closely.
We will come alive again

Never wanted to be proven wrong
Even when trapped in a corner
Heart thumping;
Knee's quivering;
Lip's trembling;
As my mind races to cover up yet another

What started out as one little innocent white lie
Has splintered out into uncountable amounts

A bright desire shines, wanting to be noticed.
Throughout the day,
she begins to lose hope, starting
to diminish as if she were to disappear.
Fading to nothing more than a shadow
of what once was.

You see the clothes
You see the hair
You don’t see the person there.
(You see a thing)

You don’t see the scars or bruises
You don’t see the fragileness
You see only what you want to see.
(You don’t see a person with emotions)

I am me
They are them,
Three halves make a whole.
They are the oddballs
Nerds and geeks.
People with voices in their heads
And we love being weird.
We’re none of your labels,
And yet . . . all of them.

Welcome to my family

The mistake girl is in the corner,
Facing the wall,
Counting how many cracks are in the cheap,
Thinning plaster.
Trying desperately and
Failing to block out her mother’s voice.
Seductive,
Setting a price.

When I look at myself I see
Harlem reflected back at me
A great city with
A great history
When I look at myself, I see the roads I have traveled
To get here, and though they took a while,
In the map of wrinkles in my face

I'm old, I tell them,
Older than you.
I tell them I'm old,
I'm full-grown.

I've seen many days,
Lived many years.
I've been many places,
I'm full-grown.

One Word
Can make the difference.
Guilty? or Not?

It doesn’t matter what I think.
It only matters what the jury believes.
I am nothing but a name in a story.

And that terrifies me.
I have no control.
Will the rest of my life be like this?

What makes me me,
Is the way I see things.
The happiness it brings,
That tells others what I see.

The way I see things,
Brings out the colors around us,
That helps me see clearer,
It also brings me nearer to my dear, dear friends.

This man is rueful,
This man was done,
This man let go, temptation had won.
This man was punished, for things of great crime,
This man left a sod to eat on a dime.
This man, crushed and torn,
This man was tired and worn.
This man, turned to a book.

Though once you might have thought
To cast away conformity,
“We must go along with the majority.”
Are the words you’ve just wrought
And now I finally realize
The clanging bells of hypocrisy
Have been tolling with the fluency

I used to rely on compliments
But now I strive off them
I used to keep my chin up
But now I cry non-stop
I used to follow my sister
But now I lead us deeper in the dark
I used to try to be myself
But now it’s no use trying

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.

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

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.

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….

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.