Sonnet by Mohammed Abed 811

Shall I compare thee to a new pair of sneakers?

The fresh smell when it comes out the box,

Playing basketball and then hitting them buzzer-beaters, 

Wearing my blue elite socks, 

People staring at my kicks,

Asking where I got them from,

Everyone saying that they are so sick,  

I tell them first give me a piece of bubble gum,

But the sneakers will soon get old,

Everyone will soon forget about them,

Then someone else will be bold, 

Come into school with their new gem, 

Every time you walk in with new kicks people see, 

You shouldn't go on a sneaker shopping spree.

Martin Espada Essay by Mohammed Abed

     Martin Espada is the Latino poet of the poems " Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877; Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and  The New Bathroom Policy at English High School." In these poems Martin Espada uses his poems to show the world how people with power abuses it. Espada shows the abuse of power in many different ways. In one of the poem he describes how he would abuse his power if he gets it. 

    The poem "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877" shows the abuse of power. Espada shows the abuse of power by stating "when forty gringo vigilantes/ cheered the rope/ that snapped two Mexicanos/ into the grimacing sleep of broken necks," shows how whites had the power in that time period. They abused it by doing bad things. In this case they abused their power by lynching Mexicanos and getting away with it. 

    Martin Espada shows how he would abuse power in the poem "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson." Espada states    "Whenever my name/ is mispronounced/I want to buy a toy pistol ... hijack a busload/ of Republican tourists/ from Wisconsin/... for the bilingual SWAT team/...begging me/to be reasonable." This shows that Espada will use his power poorly. Espada wants people to feel how he feels when his name is mispronounced. He wants them to feel the pain everyone has when their name is misprounced. 

    Martin Espada uses the principal of a high school as the power figure in his poem "The Bathroom Policy at English High School."In this poem the principal hears two boys talking Spanish so he bans Spanish. Espada states, "The boys chatter Spanish/in the bathroom/... The only word he recognizes/ is his own name/ and this constipates him/...bans Spanish/ in the bathrooms/Now he can relax." This shows that he doesn't even know what the boys said, he did it because he was mad that they said his name. Espada shows the abuse of power by using the principal and how he didn't want people to speak a language he didn't understand so he banned it. 

     Martin Espada uses his poems to show different messages that happens in the world. Espada shows the different ways power can be abused. In the poems " Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877; Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and  The New Bathroom Policy at English High School," power was abused by people. Espada abused the power he had in the poem. The gringos abused the power they had. The principal also abusedthe  power he had. Espada uses power as a theme in these three poems.

Craft a story that uses all of the following words: eagle, yellow, bridge, secret by Mohammed Abed 811 Extra Credit

Once upon a time, there was this eagle.He told a secret story to the people they trusted. The story contains two main things. The story contains a yellow bridge and an eagle. The eagle tells a secret to the yellow bridge. 

The eagle is trying to get to California. He arrives in California  there and is now looking for a place to live. He searches the trees but there was no place for him to stay. He passes through this yellow bridge and asked the bridge, "Can I live hear?" 

The yellow bridge responds "Yes." They later start to become good friends and the eagle decides to tell the yellow bridge a secret. This is the secret he told the yellow bridge, " I use to be a criminal and the cops are looking for me." The yellow bridge acts like nothing changed but he told the other birds what the eagle told him. 

A week later the cops come looking for the eagle and the eagle knew that the yellow bridge betrayed him.  The lesson of the story is that some secrets should be told to other people to make places safer. Some secrets should not be told to anyone if they trusted you. In this case this secret was told by the yellow bridge for the good of the community. 

That was then, this is now by Mohammed Abed 811

     In the book  the two main characters  Byron and Mark are  brothers. Things are changing Byron is growing up. Mark is the one who lives the life of the party. Byron is now finding new things about Mark. They both hustle pool at a friends bar. Mark's parents died in an argument with each other when they were both drunk and ended up shooting each other. 

     Mark and Bryon have to make money to help support the family while their mom is in the hospital getting surgery. Bryon gets a job at the local supermarket while Mark starts bringing in lots of cash. Bryon doesn't ask where it's from. Towards the end of the book, Bryon discovers that Mark has been getting his money by selling drugs to hippies. Bryon is horrified since a 13 year old kid they know, named M&M, went missing and became crazy because of someone selling him drugs. 

     That shows you will never fully be able to know someone. In this story they didn't really notice what was really happening between them. When Byron finds out Mark e decides to call the police and has Mark arrested. When Byron confronted Mark, Mark said that he would stop but it was too late. Mark gets sent to an reformatory school.

The outsiders by Mohammed Abed 811

      In the book "The Outsiders" the main character and his best friend Johnny. Johnny and Ponyboy are greasers. They had long black hair and were teenagers. Their enemies were the Socs. Johnny and Ponyboy both ran away from home because of many reasons. Johnny left because of the beatings endured from his father. Ponyboy had no parents but he had two older brothers. Soda and Darry loved Ponyboy but Darry would sometimes yell at Ponyboy but Ponyboy did something very stupid and Darry hit him.

      After the incident with Darry, Ponyboy and Johnny both ran away. Shortly after they ran away Ponyboy and Johnny get  into some trouble. They end up being surrounded by Socs. Ponyboy is being drowned by Socs and is about to die. Johnny takes out his Switchblade and stabs the Soc drowning Ponyboy. Then they go back to get Darry's help.

     Darry is at a party when they go to get his help. He was also drunk but he still helped them get out safely. He gave them money, a gun, and a place to stay. He told them where to go and what to do. When they arrive they have to change how they look. They both get haircuts but Ponyboy had to bleach his hair. They start talking about things that they will not talk about around the gang. Darry comes a couple of days later and helps them even more. He takes them to get some real food and tells them about what is happening back home. They are eager to go back but will they be safe there, will they be safe anywhere.

Runner by Mohammed Abed 811

This story is about a teenager named Chance and his life. His dad is analcoholic and they live on a tiny boat. They barely have enough money to survive. His father just his job and he has to make money fast. 

Someone comes up to him and offers Chance a job. He doesn't say what the job is. All he says is that he will be delivering packages. Chance knows there is something up but desperately needs the money. So he does it anyway. 

At the end of the book he notices people following him. The guy who offered the chance the job died. He tells his dad everything and his dad helps him out. His dad later sacrificed his life to save others. I would definetly recommend this book. 

mohammed abed 811

       Runner is a great story about choosing between right and wrong, whether it is justified or not and what the consequences to our actions can amount to. Runner is about a young man named Chance Taylor who lives with his dad on a boat in Seattle, Washington. Chance’s home life is not one that others would consider ideal; his father has a drinking problem, and his mother is not even apart of his life, all while living in poverty. Chance’s favorite thing to do is run. It is his way of getting away from the problems he has to face everyday. On one special occasion, a man confronts Chance with an opportunity, an opportunity making money while at the same time doing what he loves, running.                                                                                                                                                                          Chance is to run packages across town for the man, he is not allowed to ask questions or inspect what he is running, which Chance soon realizes he is partaking in a smuggling activity. Finally Chance has an opportunity to have some financial stability in his life, but is it worth the risk? The book constantly has moments of Chance battling within himself whether his actions are justified and if he should continue what he is doing.