In Ms. Mild-Thomas’s class, we readFrancisco X. Alarcón’s Natural Criminal (in English and Spanish) and thought about the ways that he used metaphor to describe the ways he did not feel like he belonged impacted us. We considered why a poet might use a metaphor to describe a big intangible emotion. Students wrote their own poems thinking about a place where they feel like they belong or alternatively a place where they do not feel a sense of belonging, with a focus on using metaphor.
I am like a starfish
-Jatziry
I am like a starfish in a fish tank,
A rose in the mobile of the desert.
I’m the black paper in a book.
The brown leaf in the green tree.
The Marble
-Sara C
I am a clear marble in a huge field
Like a word in a dictionary
Until…I find my way through
A way home, a home to the arms
The arms where I can be me
Not the lost me, the ME.
The me where I am noticeable
where I’m not in a small dark room in the corner
I am the marble…hard to be found.
Soy como un color gris
-Samuel
Soy como un color gris en un mundo de arcoíris
Me siento como una mancha negra en una camisa blanca
Es dificil explicar lo muy incomo que me siento al estar con otra gente
Prefiero quedarme en mi cama, esperando cosas que se que nunca van a pasar
Me siento solo con gente a mi alrededor.
