English- Sophomore Year

Binding metal and rubber for the moving world,

The car makers, ticket takers,
Baseball hitters, and people movers;
Sweating, grinding, smiling,
The everchanging image.
The ones on the cruise tell me “Oh I could never, you’re brave.” And you remember those
words when you hear the glass bottles thrown and the curse words screamed.
“So many burnt down buildings,” you say, and you must be right to be afraid, they might come
after you while you walk on their sidewalks.
And the illegal art! You’re right, the giant whale will definitely come for you, so you better not
stay.
The ones who complain hold a supremacy behind every word and so a reply inevitably builds
up.
Resilience might be in your vocabulary that you learned in your private school,
but the definition will never be known to you as it is to the people of this city.
While the country puts us on lists we grow in structure, and while the winters penetrate us
we stay laughing and taking selfies with beautiful artwork on the walls behind us.
We are as beautiful as confidence, and as tough as the world makes us need to be.
We are Wounded but growing
Put down but still going.
Feared but walkable
Low on lists but still lovable.
Production, destruction, fixing corruption.
Tattooed covered with missing teeth. We try to smile at you but this mirror has only been
made one way, and with a heart too strong to give up, we keep our smile on.
Like a crazy kid being fired we leave our job laughing. Laughing the whole way to our broken
scary homes.
You point out everything but what you forget to see is the people, the ones who are laughing
and smiling even though their teeth have been broken.
Smiling wide, smiling with the smile that makes you squint, makes you cough up milk and have
to use a bathroom.
Smiling while we bind metal and cities far apart, smiling while we hit base balls so people can
catch them, while we move people through the air, and while we are still
sweating, grinding, smiling.