Description All Around Us

In Ms Budzileni’s 8th grade classes, we read Ariel Francisco’s “Along the East River and in the Bronx Young Men were Singing” and wrote poems using sensory details to describe places that we love and that are important to us.

Ms. Budzileni 8th Grade

My Neighborhood Alondra P

The laughter and yells of kids pouring out of school,

while mixed with the leaves crunching,

from kids running and playing,

the smell of the street vendor’s food.

Children using chalk to decorate the rough cement

and the decaying bricks.

Cold School Morning Karina

Waking up to the tase of toothpaste.

Hearing the train screeching

Walking out to feel the cold breeze in my fingers.

Seeing the fog in car windows.

The smell of the fresh bread.

Honking cars passing by.

Chattering from people.

Rocking feeling when walking.

Hearing people walking.

Finally making it to school, still freezing.

Haugan Victor

Kids flowing into the building in the morn.

A building with walls of brick, muddled and worn.

But on the inside, it’s been altered and born

anew, no longer a place of souls so forlorn.

Inside are young children being taught vowels.

And outside are kids playing ball and calling foul

While speaking in a tongue most bitter and foul

Threatening to shove something up another’s bowels.