Unknown Title
Twelve years old who spends his days,
Not attending school but working on a plantation,
Picking cotton for the boss man.
Jonathan Daly that is, head of this cotton picking operation.
That 12 years old name is Jarvis.
That is it. Just Jarvis.
He can’t even remember his original name.
Just the name he was branded with.
He has a brother.
A sister.
A mother.
A father as well.
There is only one problem.
The ability to read and write is not bestowed upon him.
Like Helen Keller,
Jarvis was blind to the fact that for what he did didn’t require reading or writing.
In examining this young man’s mind,
There is one simple conclusion to be made.
He is tired of the sun whipping him.
He desperately wants another life but doesn’t realize Jonathan Daly could care less.
Shaking like a runaway who had been captured,
Jarvis stood in front of his mom.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
That is the sound of the sweat splashing the floor.
This truly was,
The darkest moment of sunlight.
Impatiently, Jarvis acted before he lost his confidence.
Brazenly, he stared into his mother’s eyes.
The look she gave him in return was with a sense of frigidness.
He stood there looking like he forgot what to say.
She stood there looking as if her son had become mute.
Finally, he found the key to open his mouth.
“When will I learned read and write?” Jarvis asked.
“What do you need read and write for?” Peggy replied.
“It hurt me to pick these cotton seeds out.” Jarvis declared.
“You do not need read and write there for you will not be taught it.” Peggy affirmed.
More anger than the South after Sherman’s march,
Jarvis scurried to his bed.
At this point,
Jarvis felt a dark sunshine.
Mad at the one who fed him, yet happy to have crossed the bridge in asking.
Zzzzzzzz. Eventually Jarvis fell asleep.
On an empty stomach that is,
Forcing him not to eat.
In the coal-colored night,
Abby, the daughter of Jonathan, ran across her front yard.
In the heated pursuit,
Of rescuing Jarvis from the harsh living conditions and the thought of teaching him.
Put a sock in it.
That is exactly what happened to Jarvis at around 2 A.M.
Barely the sound of screaming coming from his raspy voice,
Risking that harsh beating from her father, it was her choice.
A wet sock soaked in saliva,
Signals to be as silent as person, who is mute,
Jarvis’ face becoming the face of a crier.
Now in a daze looking at the pictures that she drew.
She began her attempt at showing him how to read and write.
Seconds turned to minutes.
Minutes turned to hours.
An imaginary rope in between the two, she was beginning to reach him.
This secretive teaching occurred as often as 3 days a week.
Jarvis was moving in an entirely different direction.
Like Rocky taking down Apollo Creed,
No second thoughts about the time Abby invested.
Jarvis finally reached his peak.
It all came down when he was caught.
He had won but now came the defeat.
When his mom found out, his face was filled with distraught.
His sister Camilla had ratted him out worse than the Black Plague.
Charles, his hard-working father brought the lash to his back causing a rash.
In complete disobey, Jarvis could not be saved.
Soaring in his increasingly rise to becoming literate, he had now crashed.
In examining this young man’s mind,
There is one simple conclusion to be made.
The want for a new life,
The ability to be paid.
After more secret planning,
Abby and Jarvis did the unexpected.
Ran away from the slave plantation,
To a new life where the two were accepted.
By Macquon (2010)
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Das ist Schicksal
It was time to go
Time to go and save others
Our planes were slow
Carrying the weight of my brothers
Onward to Germany
All of us soldiers not knowing what’s there in their lair.
We soar through the air for hours awaiting our signal to jump
Up from the ground like lightning comes artillery .
I see the front of our bird burst into flames with a bang and I feel the thump
We are spinning out of control to the hard earth beneath us
With seconds till impact the tail end rips off and I get sucked out
The enemy sent out a scout
I fall into a high tree and get stuck
My legs snap and my shoulder makes a loud pop
I have a choice I need to make
Do I keep quiet and hide from the scout or do I alert him and allow myself to be captured
If I stay I have no chance of survival so I shine my light down below and let it drop
I hear the yells of the enemy as he climbs the tree to capture me
I’m in a truck and bound with ropes and guns pointed in my face
The whole time I think about my brothers on the plane and what my fate holds
A few minutes later the truck stops and I hears many voices and dogs barking
Four pairs of hands drag me out of the truck and slams me to the floor of the place
With a few kicks of the ribs and nips from the dogs I am dragged away and put into a cell
I see no hope
Only the bare walls of this jail
Days, weeks, I cannot tell
hen one morning I hear a yell
Explosions and gunfire all around
I hear an American voice getting near and near
Then the cell door opens and in comes the light
With all my might I try to see the fight
I’m safe now
I have been rescued
Away from Germany
..
…we have won the war .
..
…we have won the war .
By Alec (2010)
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Hidden in the Dark
The war was most bloody She is crunching of your bones
Even the children were most vigil Those bruises on your spine
All your clothes were muddy But you my friend, are not alone
The Civil War was not civil For I am with you all the time
It was not your choice to be brave. It was not your choice to be broken.
But Momma wasn’t happy The bruises are gone
My little Kieran, dear But they will return
She sent you to Utica Asylum When she returns at dawn
And you met me here Her hate comes back again
It was not your choice to be hated. It was not your choice to be tortured.
Your first day in the joint Your mother’s sweet songs in salty winds
Of course there was that fear And you began to cry
The nurses were to the point Your tears flow like the river bends
You were meant to be here For all things change in time
It was not your choice to be crazy. It was not your choice to be alone.
Smack , her hands burned to the touch As you grew older
You had met Nurse Addie But no one would listen
Like most patients, she liked you very much Your rage became all the bolder
But boy was she a maddie You killed the poor girl, Christian
It was not your choice to be abused. It was not your choice to be a killer.
Your screams of agony echoed through every hall
For the bruises had come to punish you
Even I could hear the crash; I heard the snap as you fall
Crack, your neck turned, and nothing was left of you
It was not your choice to be murdered.
The doors cried for you as you were wheeled out of those dead halls
Although the vile evil remained within
Your forgotten grave, Momma’s forgotten call
I was your only friend. I, the Raven.
It was not my choice to leave you.
Descendent of Darkness
I walk alone through the dark going further and further from the light
My heart is getting darker as the black of night
In all my battles I
have
had, I was the warrior who had won
have
had, I was the warrior who had won
I have done things no regular person could have done
My name is Riku,
and I am a soldier in a war
and I am a soldier in a war
Through all the fighting,all I see is blood and gore
Boom, Boom, is all I hear from the explosions of the cannon
The pain in my heart is so excruciating that I just cannot stand it
Sometimes I think am I doing the right thing
All I am doing is causing suffering and pain
Until one day,
I meet a pretty woman whose heart shines bright
I meet a pretty woman whose heart shines bright
My sword told me to take her life, but my heart said it was not right
As my commander appears
my heart begins to speed up
my breathing becomes hard!
my heart begins to speed up
my breathing becomes hard!
It turns out he only wanted me to deliver a card
Then to my surprise,
he saw the young girl behind me
he saw the young girl behind me
I had to either stand and fight,
or take the girl and flee
or take the girl and flee
Then before I could escape.
I ran into the king
I ran into the king
Whose heart eyes were black and green
Realizing I could not run
I decided to let the evil in me have some fun.
The battle was long but the king was stronger
He was going to kill an innocent girl because of my blunder
The king decided to turn to the young girl saying he was going to take her heart
The anger I felt from the king was so strong it nearly tore me apart
I decided to fight for the girl to fight for the weak
After saying those words,
my strength began to increase my true power is ready to be unleashed
my strength began to increase my true power is ready to be unleashed
This will be the king’s and I final battle;
this will decide who the is the victor.
this will decide who the is the victor.
As our swords clashed,
the King was fast,
but I was faster
the King was fast,
but I was faster
After one final blow I proved to the King that I was his master
The battle was so long I did
not
realize I had lost too much blood
not
realize I had lost too much blood
[At that moment I actually was happy, I died protecting someone that I actually cared for
I now realize it
is time for me to go and to shut the door on my life
is time for me to go and to shut the door on my life
Just as I was about to leave this world,
the young girl yelled out my name
the young girl yelled out my name
She told me not to give up so easy and keep on living like a roaring flame
The girl put her hand on my heart and said her heart will be my heart
She said that I will live and have a new life a new start
It has been over a year since that moment when the girl saved my life
Now I travel the world to search for her to show her my new light
I believe it is fate that I ran into that young girl that day
Because without her
,
I would have never turned out this way
,
I would have never turned out this way
By Davante (2011)
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Hard Times
I dreaded getting out of bed every morning.
Even though it was my choice to work in the factory.
The boss always had something to say, always giving a warning.
Everything I did, only 9 years old, was never satisfactory.
Papa was away at war.
While Momma was at home, pregnant.
We weren’t happy anymore.
The textile factory was ghastly and unpleasant.
The sewing machines were disagreeable and mean .
I wish I could be anywhere but the present.
The boss was anything but clean.
The boss would yell and scream then burst back through the door.
Sometimes the boss just makes me want to scream.
[ We weren’t happy anymore.
I suddenly heard a loud, disturbing noise.
SCREECH, one of the worker’s fingers’s got caught in the machine.
My machine was still running, keeping its poise.
CRUNCH, the needle from the sewing machine in my arm feels like a bullet going through me.
He insisted that I keep working, but I ran out the door.
The pain was out of this world , but the boss didn’t seem to care.
We weren’t happy anymore.
The nurse bandaged me up like a mummy.
Momma rushed right down to the factory, asking questions intensely.
The nurse gave me some candy to make me feel better, it tasted very gummy.
Momma dragged me out of that factory, for what seems 1000 miles more.
We weren’t happy anymore.
After the accident, we were finally getting into a good place.
Papa was coming home from the war and my arm finally healed.
Momma had her baby and she seems to be moving at a good pace.
The horrible memory of the war and the factory seemed to have peeled.
The Roaring 20’s were moving in the fast lane.
This was our fate.
We were finally happy again.
By Katie (2011)
