Appendix summary

every morning by Precious j.

This very short poem describes Precious’ habit of writing a poem every morning before she goes to school. She also brings up having a child and being HIV-positive, and how these things affect her life at school.

morning by Precious Jones

This poem gives a more detailed overview of Precious’ morning routine. She describes getting up, washing, brushing her teeth and dressing herself, before doing the same for her son Abdul. She then fixes breakfast for Abdul and leaves him with the daycare workers. She gets her tea, grabs her books and heads to school. The poem ends with a poetic metaphor that describes the city’s scattered bits of grass as green diamonds.

MY LIFE by Rita Romero

Rita starts her life story by describing her childhood home, a beautifully decorated apartment. She says that her mother makes her living as a medium, reading people’s futures in her crystal ball. She describes her mother’s great beauty, and reveals that she is Puerto Rican and has unusually dark skin.

Rita’s father has lighter skin and is obsessed with the importance of acting like a white person, always telling Rita that she must speak English instead of Spanish. He is also an extremely jealous man, constantly accusing Rita’s mother o...