Paloma Ruiz, age 12
Keystone School, San Antonio, Texas

I Choose

Where am I from?
How should I know?
I guess I'm from anger
Draining emotion
I guess I'm from pancakes left too long on the pan
From blue sky that melts into my family’s eyes
Should I be like them?
I am from confusion

I'm from cracking pages
New books
The musky smell of grandma’s newspaper
Red and blue bandanas
Wrapped over gelled hair
Green grass
Loud Spanish music
I can't understand
Sharp comments
Awkward moments

I guess I'm from pictures that leave out a face
That invisible entity that floats in the space
I'm from glass angels
Placed carefully on my shelf
From seashells and sand
Thunderstorms and whipping palm trees
Honking horns and raised voices
Ringing phones and heavy feet against a wooden floor
And back to quiet again

I don't understand
Really
Where I am from
So many places
To belong to
And I only chose one

Emptiness
White
Blank canvas
Windows
Looking Out
Out
Promising happiness

Quiyana Stewart, age 15
Promise Academy, New York, New York

where i’m from

i’m from low expectations,
star studded dreams, and
long-term disappointment;
cracked sidewalks and convincing
fast talk in front of poppy
stores and behind jungle gyms,
straightening combs
and curling irons,
walking works of art with
permanent teardrops,
cold nights at bus stops,
red eyes due to street
pharmacists,
punishments that only
virtually exist,
graffiti art of those
lost
and missed.