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When I Get Up in the Morning

When I wake up in the morning
my eyes are more shut than a shield
my mouth feels like an iceberg covered it
my ears are like a door closing the sound
my head is as heavy as a watermelon
my hands are as heavy as stone
my body is as lazy as a hibernating bear
and my feet are as heavy as a whale!

Felipe Alfaro, Grade 4
A Border Voices Poet

Editor's note: Think it's bad now, kid? Just wait till you're on the far side of 40.

My Grandpa

A guitar playing outside my door
Nature lover, park ranger
Tickling mustache-kisses like mice
   A story-teller
   My story-teller

Your eyes still twinkle
   like stars in my mind.
I remember the stories:
   your alligator chasing
        the fruitman's cart
   you saving my kisses
        in your pocket for next time
   your burial ashes
        scattered to the sea.

I can still feel the sun
   beating on our backs
while we planted the small tomatoes,
   like the way you planted
        love in my heart.

Jennifer Leather
Grade 5, Spreckels Elementary
A Border Voices Poet

Spitting Out Words

I would eat a poem
like I would eat a watermelon.
It would drip its juicy letters
into my mouth.
I would spit out words
like hard black seeds
and the red juicy words
smell like a waterfall.
It feels hard outside
but inside it's soft as a pillow.
It sounds crunchy like an apple
and it's like the rain
falling on a spring day.
That's why poems
are good to eat.

by Michelle Harris
Grade 4, Central Elementary School
Poet-Teacher: Glory Foster
Teacher: Christine Calabria