Then and Now.

Poetry has become a way for me to express myself without concern of my accent distracting my meaning. I wanted to send you one of my poems so you could get a better insight into who I am.

I'm from the dust, from a place where everything happened in the street

A place of fights and crimes

A place where kids look in the street for something to eat

I grew up without my father

Who had left my mother all alone

Who didn't even bother to pick up the phone

I was the man of the house handling things on my own

Learning how to cook, clean, talk like I was grown

She told me to act like my father was dead

Through the hard times I did exactly what she said

Hard times like not being fed, hard times like having to beg

These are the reasons why I did exactly what she said

Yeah I did what she said

Serious thoughts happening in a child's head

Haiti is all about survival

Watching my friend lying down after he got shot

We didn’t have time to bring him to the hospital

Every time I had seen him in the past I had to say "HI"

I'm going to sit here and sigh

I didn't get to say goodbye

January 12, 2010

The day I was doing my schoolwork with a pen, I remember that day because my desk started shaking, I looked outside the windows and the houses started falling

I didn't know what an earthquake was until then

Looking across the room there was my friend

A blank stare in his eye

For a minute I thought he was going to collapse and die

While other kids from my community started to cry

I looked out the windows again and I watched people pass by

The dangers of life are something you can never run away from

No matter where you are, getting your life taken away from you is not an option

It is something that you are not saved from... Life

I grew up in the street, the local shop is where my friends and I would meet

We had to wear sandals because we could not bear the heat.

Besides walking for hours each day, playing soccer passed the hours away

I used to love the feelings of all the rock under my feet.

Scoring goals that would fill our talks later that day

I'm from a big family bigger than most

The lack of technology and going to the struggle of life made us very close

Thanks to my grandmother I came to America and I have a better life

I love the food

I love the people

I love American football

Sometimes I feel like it is a second part of a movie with a better sequel

I can wake up and go to a good school

When I dance people think I'm cool

People think they can dance battle me but I make them look like a fool

I can be a teenager, normal

I can do things like going with a date to the sophomore formal

The opportunities I have in America are great

Yet, I will never forget where I come from

I know that people forget where they come from when they have better than before

But even at 70

I will still remember my friends at the corner store

I was lucky without a doubt

All the things I said are what my life was about

I'm no better than just another kid writing about how lucky I am to make it out