Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School
Poems from A Casting of Light, v.1, (2014)
Day One City
Let me introduce you to my city.
Detroit.
You know what they think already:
finessing, sleazing, dealing.
Detroit.
Grew up on East Warren,
where I’ll never take you.
It seems like fun and games,
but there, it’s life or death.
Detroit.
Where I can take you is downtown.
Let’s go to the River Walk,
to Cold Stone. Let’s have fun.
Let’s walk and listen to it.
Detroit.
My day one city.
Destini Clark
published in King High School’s A Casting of Light v.1 (2014)
Leaving
My mother pulled up with a lot of bags
in the truck. I was nervous with sweaty hands.
There were so many thoughts in my head:
What if we’re going on vacation?
What if we’re moving somewhere new?
But when I got in the car, she told me
I was going over to my dad’s for awhile.
Not just a few days but to live there.
I wanted to yell at her. I wanted to be
happy because I was finally leaving,
but most of all I wanted to ask:
Why are you giving up on me?
On the ride there, it was complete silence
between us. When she dropped me off,
I didn’t look back. I never said goodbye.
De’Jah Wimberly