Street roots
14
All the poetry and the essay on this page are from
a collaboration between Street Roots and the
Native American Youth and Family Center. The
work here is from the students o f Gabrielle
Buvinger-Wild’s Language Arts class, part of
»rA lzA ? r . - A
- A .......
N A YAs Early College Academy.
April 27, 2012
My Forgiveness
By Luz Barron
Dear Lucita,
•v
By Nancy
By Ana Flores
I’m sorry for all those unanswered questions.
I’m sorry for all those sleepless nights.
More than anything, I’m sorry for myself.
The colors,
people criticize.
My color is brown,
I am
Brown pride.
I am sad
More than I am
Happy.
I am gone,
Yet not reborn
In this world of mine.
From drugs too gangs,
Being disappeared,
Between
Homies and family from
Losing respect
To committing crimes
Gainng respect
Getting labeled
To prove and receive respect.
If one day I shall vanish
Away while my soul
is being carried
Far, far away,
I am
Brown pride.
<
■
Sorry I Missed Out
I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,
on those cold and lonely nights,
when you cried yourself to sleep,
wondering where Daddy went.
• I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,
when you were in danger,
and you didn’t know what decision to take,
I should have been there to protect you from your mistakes.
I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,
when you were confused,
because I wasn’t there to tell you,
what’s right from wrong.
Brown Pride
This isn’t about you.
No, its about me.
I just wanna apologize to myself.
My grip was too strong, I held on for too long.
I damaged me more than anything.
I was slowly fading away.
Your forgiveness would ease the pain.
People always say you have to forgive yourself
in order to move on.
It’s like my feet are running,
but my mind and soul are stuck in the past.
Not knowing how to fix this situation,
I’m afraid I’ll be stuck there forever.
This might seem selfish,
but it’s a place to start.
Not knowing how or when
this will end is an unsolved mystery.
I know once this is all over I’ll have peace of mind.
I forgive myself.
I’m sorry I wasn’t there,
to see your beautiful smile when you were happy,
or wipe the tears off your chubby cheeks when you were sad.
I’m sorry for leaving
my two beautiful little girls
for a woman.
I should of put you and Nancy,
before anything else in the world.
You two are my most prized possessions.
I forgive myself,
for all those nights I cried.
I forgive myself,
because I know there are brighter days.
I forgive myself,
I put you through a lot,
and yet I manage to make it through another day.
It would break my heart,
it anything happened to my little girls.
But I am so sorry I wasn’t able
to see my little princess
grow up into a
beautiful young lady.
Baby girl I’m sorry I wasn’t there to say
I love you.
Sabes que te quiero con todo mi Corazon mija.
Love,
Daddy
Distress
By Lanie Grimm
JH-*
•*-
You think you’re a man because you place your hands upon a woman?
Does it make you sleep better at night?
Black and purple eye I still won’t cry,
make me or break me
since you’re such a tough guy.
You say you’ll hit me so stick to your word,
be like Nike and just do it.
Just do it.
But I can’t promise you one day I wont loose it. I’m a Goddess,
a Warrior,
and a Solider until death.
I stand by your side defending your incompetence. You’re a sad pathetic
person
Regardless of that, I love you
because you’re my man.
Slammed on the floor CRACK breaking some bones. He screams, wallow
in your sorrows.
Think about what you have done.
A woman’s heart is an ocean full of secrets,
she mourns after every hit,
praying and praying you will just quit.
You laugh about it, drink a beer,
and watch TV in the room like you never did it.
When does this stop?
Do I have to fight back?
This is the story of MY sick romance.
To help save the Earth
BY ZACHERY CLOSE
actories are killing our land. When our
land dies what will we do? Will we have
any meat, fruit, and vegetables to eat?
We will all starve to death when our land
How long is it until we all die? Will the
companies and factories stop when they cover
the world with polluted air, or will they keep
going?
Will they stop some day soon?
The factories and big companies make
useless things: new cars, big flat screen
plasma televisions, video games, game
systems, motorcycles, and big boats. You don’t
need any of those. You can ride horses and
ride canoes like my native ancestors. You can
make up games instead of playing video
games. You don’t need fictional fake lives to
watch. You have your friends, family, and you
own life. Yes, life would be harder without
these things, but it will be even harder when
the factories destroy the earth.
I grew up hunting, fishing, and gardening. I
had fun doing all of these things, but they will
get taken away.
I admit I was scared when I went hunting
for the first time. I only killed one animal with
a gun. I killed a deer in Alaska on a big island
called Prince Of Whales. I felt sad for killing
that deer, but I gave most of the meat to my
relatives and the skin to my cousin who took
me out hunting.
In Alaska, I started fishing when I was
about 8 years old. Fishing is what I do now in
life. My first fish was a rock cod. When I
caught it I let that fish back into the sea. I
didn’t want to take a life off this earth like I
did with a deer.
Fishing is very important to me because my
ancestors did it and I want to keep the
traditional ways going. I would love for the
young ones to fish traditionally and learn how
F
to use whale blubber to get medicine.
When the factories pollute the ocean and
lakes there will be no plankton. No plankton
means whales won’t get food — and then no
more whales. No more whales mean no
dies.
medicine for my people. When we don’t get
medicine, we know the government won’t help
us because it’s too money hungry.
So then my people will die.
In Washington on the Yakama reservation,
the waste from factories and companies
polluted the lakes and rivers. The white
people blame the natives for the fish
disappearing. The white people don’t know
that they are the reason why all the fish are
disappearing. In the past 50 years, about
43,000 fish lost their instincts from company
waste. Now the fish spawn in different areas
and are missing from the Yakama River.
I was only 6 years old when I first went
gardening with my grandma, and I grew to
love it. The very first plant I planted grew
until it died. It was a red rose. I was so happy
when the red rose grew, and sad when it died.
Stop polluting and dumping waste in rivers
and lakes. Stop killing the earth. Everyone
needs to stop being selfish and think about
the animals and the future. I don’t care if it’s
making life much easier. Life is supposed to
be a challenge. I know that life was much
harder about a hundred of years ago for the
Native Americans, but not for the white
people. It was harder for the Native
Americans because the Native Americans did
hunting, fishing, and gardening; the same stuff
I love doing. It isn’t easy. It’s more of a
challenge but it’s how my ancestors lived and
that’s how I want to live.
Do you want to save the Earth and have all
this? If you don’t want a beautiful land, meat,
and fish, then continue doing what your doing.
As for me, I want to help save the Earth.