Poetry Slam

Tomorrow is the first ever Poetry Slam against Alliance House. Alliance House is a treatment program near here, run by the same agency as us. Many of your boys go on to Alliance House when they leave us. I was sitting next to the English teacher at a professional development day when we hatched this idea, and now it has come to fruition. I am so nervous! We are hosting it (since many of our boys can't travel), they are coming around 10, and we are slamming it poetry style. I am excited, Alliance House is bringing close to 10 guys, mostly our former residents, and we have close to 10 that are going for it. I made muffins and congo bars (the Congo bars were a specific request), they are bringing cookies and we are providing punch. I would never ask my boys to put themselves out there unless I was willing to also, so I wrote a poem to perform. I had written one called "Ode to the N word - dedicated to Hansel and all of my boys who try to get me to say it", but I just don't feel like it is done yet. So tonight I wrote a new one. I think it is pretty good, I know it will be well received by the kids. Here it is: (untitled)

You think you’re sly with your
SugarHoneyIcedTea
Like you invented it
Like we were never kids

Or ShutTheFrontDoor
Sure…..

You try to pull a fast one on us with your
Fff this and Fff that
Ya, we never pulled that one either

How about the ring finger bird?
Nope, not an original

You flash your gang signs
Then act surprised when caught
Like we don’t know what you are up to

On dogs we do.

We sigh when you curse us out
You’re not the first
You won’t be the last

We roll our eyes when you complain about
Not using colored pens
Not wearing certain brands
Are you really surprised?

You try to play the race card
Claim it’s all about race

It is

A race against time
To show you who you can be
To help you find your way
To prepare you

A race against the past
Helping you find your way out
Proving you are more
Proving you can

A race against every bad thing
Pulling you in every direction

And we keep coming in day after day

Ready to race

Ready to force it

Ready to steal points

Ready for you

Lily & Mia

How adorable are my nieces???

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

I know this is a day early, but we are going to be so busy tomorrow, I don;t think I will get the chance to blog. I love Easter. All week Ali and I have been talking about what is going on biblically. Today we discussed how tomorrow we get our "Alleluia" back and why.

Here is a picture of Ali with the Easter bunny last weekend.

writing

I have never been one to share my writing, but if I want to be a writer, I need to start! This is something I wrote yesterday at my professional development day. We were assigned the prompt "a turning point in my life" and had to pick either "when time stood still" or "when time flew by." I picked time standing still. I got some very positive comments on it. Here it is:

I remember the day I said goodbye to my friend Sarah. She was in my kitchen, we were 18, and we both knew we would never see each other again.

Sarah was my “drug buddy”, to use a phrase from a Lemonheads song. I had met Sarah through a mutual friend. At first she was the source of the drugs we did, but she became my friend. She had all the great parties I heard about but never attended. We hung out with skaters, taggers and druggies, all male. Not wanting to appear weak or girly, we had to keep up a strong front. Desperation to define ourselves drew us together.

Quickly my life hit a turning point, graduation. I had been accepted to a college 1200 miles away. I was the first in my family going to college. If I was going to succeed, I had to grow up. No more drugs. Mo more running from my problems. No more lies. I knew that meant leaving Sarah behind.

She came by one evening to say goodbye. We both pretended that we would see each other soon. We smiled nervously and talked about my first break. The moment is frozen in my mind, Sarah in my kitchen saying goodbye. Realizing I would never see her again. I hugged Sarah and said goodbye, leaving my rocky childhood behind.