"Smiles"

Ana Reyes

Smiles
Smiles can represent different emotions in different ways.
Smiles are often used when you wake up on your birthday and your whole family is there singing "Las mallanitas" or "Happy Birthday" to you.
Smiles can be real when wanted
Like when your crush looks straight into your eyes and smiles back at you while your heart is beating 100 times harder than normal.
And smiles can be fake when wanted.
Like when when you don't like one of your family members but your mom tells you to smile and be nice.
You smile when it's Christmas morning and you go downstairs to open up your presents and you see a box with your name on it and open it up and see the game you've been waiting since it came out one month before and you run up to your parents and hug them and say "Thanks you're the best!" and they smile back at you with joy.
Smiles can be sad in a difficult way,
Like sadness hiding deep, deep inside of you.
But all I know is that
You smile,
I smile,
And that we all smile.

"2 Faces"

Jonathon Rodriguez

US TEENAGERS...
IN PUBLIC...
WE FAKE A SMILE,
PRETEND WE ARE OK WHEN WE ARE NOT
LAUGH LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW
WE JOKE AROUND
AND WE HAVE TONS OF FUN
BUT THAT IS JUST ON THE OUTSIDE.

IN PRIVATE?
WE LET IT OUT!!!
SCREAM UNTIL THERE IS NO VOICE LEFT IN US.
GO BALLISTIC!!!
UGH!!!!
WE HATE OUR TRIBULATIONS!!!!

IN PUBLIC WE MUST LOOK GOOD!
WE HUG PEOPLE!
WE BEHAVE LIKE HYPOCRITES...
SOMETIMES WE STAY EXPRESSIONLESS...SAVING OUR ENERGY...

SCREAMING?
IN PRIVATE!!!

"Beautiful Flower"

Evelyn Montiel

Blooms like a sun shining in the sky or when you just all water it brightens your day and makes you smile like a newborn baby. Opens its petals and blooms to see what awaits it. Opens its petals like a newborn butterfly just spreading out of its cocoon and opening to the new world. Describes happiness and joy which can bring a smile to your face by smelling the delicious fragrance running through your nose. A flower is a flower that just opens just for you.

"Hypnotized"

Rolando Gomez

Hypnotized
The word that comes
To mind when,
I see your eyes
Your lips. They are like magnets
That attracts me right to you. When I see
You, you make me stop thinking, but
You make me start thinking of you as
If you were a beautiful red rose with soft petals.
When you talk to me, you got me
So hypnotized that the only thing I see
Is you brown eyes, I myself sometimes get embarrassed
To talk to a beautiful girl as a
Beautiful butterfly flaps its blue-violet wings in the blue sky.
You hypnotize me to no end, just as there is no end to us.

"Nigerian Princess"

Unwana Ekpa

I don my offspring iwud--lacy, vibrant scarf wrapping around my head.
"Sine offong! Ini ekem edidaka!"
Mommy yells at the top of her lungs, rushing me to hurry up and get ready to go.
What to wear... what to wear
I choose the pink outfit, but
stares of admiration slip from my eyes.
I can't help it,
falling into this daydream;
this outfit transforms me.
In the midst of the vast, deafening Independence Day festival
looking down at myself brings such glee.
Floating in the embroidered pink lace,
the pattern of the silver vines.
The silky, cloisonne designs
are a clever alternative to gold.
A scalloped edge intertwines the colors: the gentle pinks and the striking silvers and golds,
and finishes my appearance.
How do i look?
Outsides
hating the itchy Nigerian clothing;
insides churning--I do not do my garb justice
Frantically, I search for a mirror
the revealing glass brings tears to my eyes.
Is this me? Me,
black girl whose parents happen to be born in Africa?
Or me,
governor's daughter, niece, something?
Anyone but me.
Whenever mommy wears her Nigerian garb,
she is so blissful.
The stunning queen of her terrain.
Not the Houstonian.
Akwa Ibom royalty.
One who says, "Abadiye! Idioko?"
To her state that knows her so well,
and "Hello! How are you?"
to the outside world who does not.
She represents my country.
Where NEPA frequently turns off the electricity;
where fufu and egusi soup are eaten daily.
And I, fruit of her womb,
I have never felt this pride
until now
though I see it
in her eyes all the time?
Born with innocent embarrassment around my heart,
these clothes make me feel what she feels.
Please to embrace me, Nigeria
simply because
that's who I am.
Nigerian princess.

Poem Title Here

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