In Social Justice High School last week, we read Jane Wong’s “After Preparing the Altar the Ghosts Feasts Feverishly.” We discussed the layered meaning of food, cultures, and how this was reflected in the style of writing as well as Wong’s reading of it. Each poet was tasked with writing about their own food or tradition within their family or friends.
Mr. Robles 9th-12th
Tradition Awaits, Dayanara R.
Everyday is a hard moment in life where it feels forever.
Same thing that feels years to fill yet nothing is learned.
The only thing that brings us back is our family
the tradition that awaits us to make us whole
It’s the years we grow and realize why this is
Important. Why it follows us through generations.
This day comes 1 time of the year but its the
happiest and most excited ay for all of us. Easter
And CHRISTMAS!
Irheli P.
How do you forget the rules when your manual
is open in your hands everyday?
How can you be so illiterate yet you study
the book with a highlighter in hand, full of
annotations? Why do you lie to your peers?
The purpose of life isn’t to make others
suffer, it’s to help. It’s to support, to cherish.
Not to judge, to embrace. How would it
feel to see your kids resent? Maybe that’s
why I tear up in the church pews with you
beside me, kneeling down and praying.
Praying for me. Praying the way that I did
about 10 years ago. Praying for a change,
hoping it was for me.
Ileana G.
every time it’s the Day of the Dead I miss all of
the people I lost even if I didn’t know them. I do wish I did
but I know I could feel them hugging me so I give them food
to eat, water to drink, fire to feel and to see. if they have
come to visit us it’s the one day that I love the most.
the hot tamales, the smell coming to my nose
I could taste the flavor of meat or cheese
how I would die for a tamale, it makes me feel like
I’m in Mexico, if only I was there feeling the
hot sun, drinking Horchata, eating all of the traditional
foods. Ohh how I would die to got there
I would see all the family there, my family that
lives in Mexico
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