Poems from WR 245: The Poet in the City

“Fear”

Fear is a final wave good-bye.
If this fear had a taste, I imagine
it would taste as nothing
for saying good-bye to someone is
at least at first
a loss of everything,
even the want to taste

Or be enriched.—Marcella, 15

“Tears”
I have been acquainted with the cry.
I have felt the tingly wetness
dropping down my face.

Maybe it’s sadness, or
maybe it’s not.
Maybe, just maybe
it’s a tear drop.
Maybe it’s the tear
that I cry every night.

But when it’s all over,
I know it’s not sadness.
It was the fear I felt inside
that made me cry. –Athena, 15

“The Cares of Children”

Running around
as kids often do
I remember playing,
having the cares of children.

Would they like me?
What shall I add to this?

Let’s go to the top,
and slide to the bottom
“Summertime, and the livin’s easy.”
Won’t have school for another few months.
Water balloon fights,
Slip-and-slides. –Marcella, 15

“Rivers”

Today my name is river flowing
I know that I’m a transporter of many things going
I see the rocks, fish, sand and doe
There never was a time that this was not so.—Josh, 14

“Big Disaster”

My life was once a disaster
My step mom chose
Her drugs over me
So I packed my bag after
I left
My dad asked me where
I was going
On the road,
Traveling with my skates

I skate so far
I skate so much
I love and blade every day
And grind my skates
listening to the crunching sounds
Of the sidewalk
And the rails go kink
landing very hard against the concrete.
And skating, pulling a backside
180
12 feet of stars
at the courthouse! –Rex, 16