"Becoming Joey" by Paul C. Gorski José’s ten.

Looks six by size,

twenty in the eyes.

Down

the school-morning street

José ambles along

dotted lines of busses and cars

spitting exhaust like expletives.

They disturb his meditation,

a few final moments of peace.

José is frail but upright.

Smartly stitched hand-me-downs

hang from his slenderness.

Soles flop beneath battered shoes,

long worn but hanging on

if only by a lace.

José pauses in the schoolyard

where fairer kids laugh and scurry unaware

of this, his battle;

of this, his burden;

of these, his borderlands.

Behind him: cracked

sidewalks, frosted nights,

belonging.

Before him: playgrounds manicured,

classrooms heated against

some sorts of cold,

earnest lessons about a world

that doesn’t see him.

Still José moves forward;

what feels in his stomach

a backward sort of forward.

Pausing in the doorway

José straightens his shirt,

trying to dust away

the stains of ancestry.

Pausing in the doorway

José clears his throat,

trying to spit away

his alien voice.

Only then,

becoming Joey,

he crosses

into school
Question #1: How did the reading of the poem in the video help you better understand Joey’s emotions? *
Question #2: What words tell you how Joey is feeling? *
Guiding Question #3: What does Joey’s experience make you think about? *