Manual High Student Poems: May 23rd 2002

-by Cody Valadez

3 years old

Gun turned at me and my dad.
They took my dad.
They took my mom.
They protect and serve,
but my parents were gone.

I was always left wondering,
America the beautiful, who are you beautiful for?
6 years gone, but 9 years strong
only fourth grader who didn’t know their mom.
Fourth grade would go and
Fifth grade would show
only kid in his fifth foster home.

Sixth grade would come.
Elementary would go.
Questions would stir;
will I ever go home?

America the beautiful, who are you beautiful for?

The year went by. I got my first high,
starting to think I couldn’t ever die.
Getting wise and getting high,
I didn’t think about a mandatory 0-5.

Educated by a country
That does not see me
My parents were dropouts
Soon will I be?

America the beautiful, who are you beautiful for?

A democratic country to you, a dictatorship to me.
It’s been that way since before I could read.
My American dream is chosen for me.
while yours is yours, equal and free.
America the beautiful, who are you beautiful for?

The American dream is something to you
Useless to me
Because of your skin you get to be free?
If I’m just a statistic, what are you to me?

I am the face of America
the face you might not want to see
the face of American that can set our country free.

If i can’t be the face of America
I can’t let it phase me
I am the only kid who lives in reality.
In your reality you chose your own way in my reality they show me my way

And so I ask you again
America the beautiful, who are you beautiful for?

Students from Manual High School in Denver visited KGNU recently to record some of their poetry. In their 10th grade American Literature class, the students have been writing, discussing, and reading about “The American Dream”. They’ve been inspired to write their own poetry on this theme. KGNU will be featuring these poems throughout January.