San Francisco International High School 11th Graders Share Their Dreams in Poetry
By Hei Hei, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, San Francisco International High School
I’m running in circles for the poetry from the 11th graders at San Francisco International High School (SFIHS.) Their poems are smart, insightful and full of brave messages.
Arr, arr – here are the 11th Grade winners of the ACE Poetry Contest.
From class I: Ashley Tercero
From class J: Winni Hu
From class K: Jordan Baluyot
From class L: Alexander Blanco
And now their poems.
Is This Really the American Dream?
By Ashley Theresa Tercero Perez
Is this really the American Dream
A place painted pink but with another
Dark side
Full of open doors, important as oxygen
But also full of suffering, like a tornado
Suffering from the loneliness that comes every night
Working hard, filling the wallet with dollars,
To support your family, knowing that it’s worth so much effort
Holding cold through the streets, to provide a better future for their children…
Knowing that money is not everything in life
Crying alone, with the helplessness of not seeing them grow.
The American Dream is a piece of paper
Where you start to write a new story
Praying to God for the strength to continue,
To not lose hope.
Working hard, seeing how the years,
They go fast, like a shooting star
Knowing that it was worth so much sacrifice,
So many years of dedication
Without losing hope.
Ashley accepts her prize.
Dream
By Winni Hu
The American dream is like the cat in Schrödinger’s box
If you believe it is there
Then you will find it there
If you don’t believe it is there
Then you will not find it there
Sometimes
Dream is as beautiful as fantasy
Lots of people died on their fantasy
Without hard working and trying
Sometimes
Dream is as difficult as the reality
Lots of people get the sweetness at the end
With scars and tears
Who will be able to get their dreams
As they get their jobs
As they get their hope
As they get their food
As they get their freedom
Martin Luther King has an American dream
A dream as shiny as the black pearls
After a long time of hardship
The lights of the hope and equality
Penetrate from the shells
The road before he is long and winding
But the light he brings to America
Stay gold forever on human the history
I have an American dream
A dream as amazing as a movie
Showing the taste of my life
Showing the color of my future
Showing the shape of my dream
Showing the shine of all the miracle
I will finally determine my ending nither
Happy
Or
Bad
All the Americans have an American dream
Some are easy to be reached
Some are hard to be achieved
All the Americans have their own life
Either
Working hard to climb up the stair of the society
Or
Dreaming hard only on the bottom of the reality
This is how American dream works
If you believe it is there
Then you will find it there
If you don’t believe it is there
Then you will not find it there
Who will be able to get their dreams?
Winni accepts her prize.
Hopeless
By Mark Jordan Baluyot
The American Dream
Is it just a big scheme?
We all work hard
To seek a precious reward
Like a colony of ants
Looking for food for infants
Does hard work really payoff?
Workers are sick, still no days off
It’s a burning star
Dying slowly from afar
Immigrants say it’s unfair
Being controlled from the one in the big chair
Just like the moon and the sun
Why can’t we be one?
Light in the day and night
They get along and never fight
Families got deported
Dreams are distorted
We are the colored skin
Try our best, but can’t win
Everyone in sorrow
Because of the broken tomorrow
Is it still there?
It just flew away in the air
Jordan accepts his prize.
Oh! Americandream
By Alexander Blanco
Oh! American dream! Designed to be new, but expensive,
Expensive as something fancy and cruel like a knife. His opportunities are invisible as the oxygen But
Coexist? The American dream as lightful morning?
Tell me what about your hard work! What is your climbing to the top of the mountain like?
Exciting as a spring? Or boring as a school?
Dreams are dreams
But working for it
Brings you a wind of hope, new oxygen to your lungs!
Because at the end of the day
An unexpected reward, may fall from sky
Like a soldier from an airplane.
American dream is a president because it promises a lot of things.
Just don’t sleep on the facts
And break your legs on the stage.
Alexander accepts his prize.