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MISCELLANY
endnotes
Foster children move from place to place
With memories that walk the night alone,
Nor is the love theirs that they must embrace.
Yet most survive with a peculiar grace,
Even though their hearts should turn to stone
As they move about from place to place.
Perhaps within themselves they find a space
To furnish as they would a mobile home,
Finding scraps of things they can embrace,
A memory like some much-fingered lace,
Thoughts and dreams that only they have known,
Moving as they do from place to place,
Their childhood impossible to trace
In the years of yearning after they are grown,
Filled with love they've chosen to embrace,
Yet with their losses etched upon their face,
Pain for which no penance can atone.
How can they move and move from place to place,
Surrendering the love they must embrace?
Nicholas Gordon
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Incontrovertible Math
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 A child's letter to God
Dear God: I love Jesse a lot.
When I told him, he pushed me down
and made me cry.
Mommy says he must like me too.
What do you think?
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in his youth
he often struggled hard
against the wind
pushing ever forward
trying to prove his strength
and then one day
he turned his back to the wind
to follow his passion
and struggled
no more
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You see me as you want to.
You may follow me,
You may cross the street.
You may harass me,
dismiss me,
or even turn a blind eye.
I see you too.
You clutch your purse tighter, closer,
slide your wallet into your front pocket,
lock your doors while I am crossing the street.
These things do not bother me.
For if you knew me, you would know that
I am kind, intelligent, outgoing, and understanding.
I am a human being, just like you.
My feelings have no color,
nor are they disabled.
Rejection is universal.
I find comfort in those who accept and
those who don't just hear, but listen.
And all I will ever need is a chance.
A chance to show that I too am beautiful.
I too can shine. You see me as you want to.
If all you see is a stereotype then
you shall never know me,
but you will forever know who I am not.
Langston Craig, age 18
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