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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: September 8, 2003
Latest Update: September 8, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

From Burbank Middle School After Sandra Cisneros
You Bring Out the Mexican in Me
You bring out the Freddy Krueger in me.
You make me scream at you
When you go in my room without permission
to borrow my Game Boy Advance Bag.
To get back I hide
your Nintendo Game Cube CD”s
in the closet under the wooden box.
You little weasel whose hair sticks up.
You bring out the goblin in me
when you make dumb noises
with your mouth at the dinner table.
But, Rooster Head, sometimes you”re nice
You lend me money to buy
Sprite and chips, then say,
“You don’t have to pay me back now.”
Other times you make me sneak
into your room and pretend to be a ghost.
I call your name in a low whisper.

© Tamara Castro

* * * * *

I came across this lovely poem when I was putting together material for our discussion on the Los Angeles Unified School District's program under which disabled children will be mainstreamed over the next four years. It was on a consultant's site. Not much there, actually, except the offer of selling their services, but the poem was the winner in a contest they had offered for children 2 to 13. Idon't know what, if anything, it has to do with disabled chidren and their eduction, but I know a great poem when I see it. Hey, Rooster Head, you're not so bad. I'll bet you're my brother.

If this poem was produced by a child formally classified as "disabled," it may just be the best argument I've ever heard for mainstreaming.

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Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, September 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.