A POEM BY MY SON

My son had written a poem that appeared in his high school's most recent literary journal. I was truly proud of it because while many teens wrote about love and pets (and nothing wrong with that of course), he wrote about child poverty (which he'd researched for another assignment). Well, his poem "John" is now available online HERE.  WELL, I'm so proud of him I'll reprint it here anyway on his Mom's Blog, to wit:

JOHN

Do you know this kid? His name is John.

I bet you know John.


You might not even know you know John.

You see him sometimes, isolated,

not socializing with others.

You see him sometimes skipping lunch.  

You see him swallow hard, watching others

toss parts of their sandwiches


or apples into the trash.

Maybe you don’t see John at school 

and you wonder where he is.


Have you ever guessed why John 

was absent from class?

Maybe he is helping his dad on a job 

to be able to support the family.

How many are we in our English class?

I count 19 students.
 

Did you know that one out of five kids 

in the United States is poor?

19 students in our class.
 

This means that, on average,
 

maybe three or four of us are poor.
 

I bet you know John.
 

You might not even know you know John.

Wait!  That's not all!  Then the poem would come to be reprinted in this journal for high school writers, Pine Tree Poetry Collection.  Here's Michael with the journal when it arrived at the house -- of course I forced him to pose with it!

Hmmm.  Isn't this an excuse to post my favorite "author photo" ever?  Yes, it's of me and Michael at our adoption "Gotcha Day."  I used it for my book THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems and New (1998-2010):

Adore moi son!


P.S.  My Colombian-born son wrote the poem during his 4th year of English ...