My Skin | Poem by Weang Weang, Park Orchard fourth-grader

Published 4:34 pm Friday, June 24, 2011

Kent’s Park Orchard Elementary student Weang Weang read the following poem as part of the Writers in the Schools Student Reading and Celebration June 1 at the downtown Seattle Public Library. He also read the poem June 22 in front of the Kent School Board.

My Skin

by Weang Weang (with Daliantae McNeil)

My skin is like shadows on the ground

That keep you cool when it’s hot

My skin is like sweet chocolate cookies

My skin is like crows

Flying in the sky naturally

My skin is like the nights when you dream

Sweet dreams and not sour

My skin is like black labels

My skin is like juicy olives

My skin is like soft panda skin

My skin is like dark knights armor

My skin is like a black tuxedo

My skin is like ants marching from one place to another

My skin is like a fast furious and sneaky puma

My skin is like sweet hot cocoa

When I’m happy I taste like gumdrops

When I’m happy I smell like fresh pears

My feeling is creative and powerful

When I dream I see music filling people’s hearts

Just cause I’m dark like the night sky

Doesn’t mean I can’t shine like the bright stars

So think before you speak next time cause

This is the way I am

Weang Weang is a fourth-grader at Park Orchard Elementary in Kent.

Park Orchard, 11010 S.E. 232nd St., was the first Kent school to partner with Seattle Arts and Lectures to offer the Writers in the Schools program. Park Orchard joined the Writers in the Schools program two years ago. Each school in the program houses a professional writer in resident who visits classrooms once a week.

The poem will be published in the Writers in the Schools anthology.