'Why do you run?' I asked the river,
'So fast I can't compete.'
'I run,' the river said, 'because
I have some streams to meet.'

Kids in camouflage sprint and stumble through smoke,

their faces smeared with blood and dirt.

It’s a burnt-out city with kids tearing into enemy lines,

no weapons,

Kids in camouflage sprint and stumble through smoke,

their faces smeared with blood and dirt.

It’s a burnt-out city with kids tearing into enemy lines,

no weapons,

I like to stay up
and listen
when big people talking
jumbie stories

I does feel
so tingly and excited
inside me

She is not here.
Not beside me in bed
nor in the room
at all.

It has happened

and drank soda

and didn’t eat lunch

and I almost got arrested

and I hate math

and tomorrow we have to play basketball in gym class

and I’m not that good

I wanna be a star.
I wanna go far.
I wanna drive around 
in a big red car.
I said yeah yeah yeah
I wanna be a star.

I write these poems

To make up for the empty slogans

that gassed me up and left me choking

I held too much in, now outspoken

is how I am, now my mind is open

Imagine if your nails are nails

so every time they get long

you hammer them in a bit to make them short.

Once everything was big
and you were small,
but year after year your shadow 
crept up the wall 
and you grew tall.