English 3 Poem by Yaritza Florencio

1. The instructor said,
2. Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you- Then, it will be true.
3. I wonder if it's that simple?
4. I’m sixteen, Hispanic, black, European, quarter Jewish, born in New Ro
5. I’ve gone to a catholic school in Dominican Republic, to Mt. Vernon elementary and now here NRHS
6. Mr. Zim told me to fill in my information, and so I did: In the above two lines.
7. But that isn’t enough, so I thought that I should peel back a couple layers more.
8. Forget about my race or where I’m from or where I went to school. It’s not important.
9. I am a thinker, a hopeless romantic in every extent of the word.
10. I am forgiving and careless and constrained and different yet the same as you.
11. But I can’t be what I want to be, because I want to be is free.
12. And I wrap my head around it and I realize that I can’t be free because no one is.
13. I believe in god because if I didn’t I would feel alone
14. I’m scared of being alone, it’s a phobia of mine
15. I love, love. Everything about it fascinates me and I don’t know why.
16. I love people who love me and people who pretend to love me.
17. I love them for trying to make me feel loved, whether they do it for their benefit or mine.
18. I love video games because they distract me, I hate art because I can never draw
19. I like to share because it makes me feel better about having so much
20. I like history and its stories and downturns and its truthfulness
21. I like learning new languages because its beautiful to speak English, wonderful to curse in French
22. And nothing is better than ordering your Chinese food in mandarin
23. I am a dreamer and in sporadic moments a realist, an extremist and obsessive
24. My favorite color is black, and I don’t care if you say it’s a shade
25. I don’t care what many people say about many things
26. Unless they are talking about me, because then it matters to me more than anything else
27. And I know it shouldn’t but it does and I listen and take notes and I re-read
28. And I become what you want me to be because what I want to be I cant be and that’s free
29. I want to be a toy soldier, part of a bigger lot, I believe in Valkyries and Valhalla and I want to go there
30. And I want to fight and I’m not afraid to die.
31. That’s American.
32. Maybe, every now and again I think maybe that isn’t the best thing
33. But then I remember what I don’t want to be,
34. In the sidelines in a country protected by people who die, for me, but whom ill never meet
35. And I remember my dad, who would finally be proud to say he got a daughter instead of a son
36. And my sister whom I would finally outshine
37. But I do many things wrong, like probably you do
38. And I’m insecure, and I’m in love and I like Frank Sinatra
39. I like Jane Austen and having friends
40. And I want to fly, because I always associated that with being free
41. This is my page for English 3