From my Left and Right
Location
(poems go here) From one side I hear
“I am nervous
I wonder if they will talk to me
I hear laughs of kids around me
I see skin different than mine
I am scared
I pretend that they don’t bother me
I feel like I don’t belong
I touch my arms as I cross them because I don’t like this feeling
I worry that they will pick on me
I cry because I feel alone
I am hated
I understand that we are different
I say that color shouldn’t matter
I dream that they will like me
I try to hide my feelings
I hope that this isn’t just because of my skin color
I am different, and they can see it”
And from the other,
“I am upset
I wonder if I’ll catch their disease
I hear people telling me it’ll be ok
I see black all around
I am confused
I pretend that I’m fine with it
I feel like they shouldn’t be near me
I touch my skirt to fix it to show I am better than them
I worry that they’ll talk to me
I cry because I shouldn’t have to deal with this
I am above them
I understand that we are not the same
I say that they should leave
I dream that things would go back to the way they were
I try to ignore them
I hope they don’t think they are equal to us now
I am in a school that should have never changed”
Cant they see we’re as different as the same can be?