Harry Toro

A Waterways Project Publication

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Harry ~

Toro

Richard Spiegel Barbara Fisher codlrectors Thomas Perry

!;i administrative assistant

Miriam Lock Teacher

East Brooklyn Congregations School for Public Service in Bushwick Shirley Edwards

Principal

Stephen E. Phillips superintendent Alternative High Schools & Programs

©I997 Ten Penny Players with funding support from

the NY State Council on the Arts

So far we have read poems in English, also Greek drama which I'm glad we finished. There are many types of styles for a poem and different ways a person reads a poem with its proper tone

I thank God for another day of life to keep away from temptation

and learn to sacrifice.

I'm glad for a home to sleep

and your love which I intend to keep Family. friends, clothes and food and preventing me from getting shot

in the neighborhood

You are my air. you are in your creations and lost for the imagination

of writing this with no hesitation.

2

Personal

I have two things that mean much to me that through the years I have kept

One is a picture of me about eight with my Dad (R.I.P.)

that reminds me of the good times and keeps me

from being sad

another is a striped black wool shirt

That keeps me in my mind from being hurt I was the youngest

He's been gone for the longest but I know he'll be back for me

So I would be right and the whole world could see

3

The Saddest Day of My Life R.I.P. My Dad

It's like it was yesterday that my father went away I woke up one morning

Not knowing the phone call will be of a sad story everyone in a rush to leave from the call

In a while later we were going past the hospital halls through the floors and down the hallway

a shade of darkness in where my father had stayed

home away

Opening the door going inside

Telling from the dryness, tears my mother had cried In such surprise

My father had passed away

No time for me and God to compromise All of us around my father

Praying for his soul to rest

All my life was completely a fear and mess Not all stories have a happy ending Memories were all that was left from his funeral which I was attending.

4

1 J

My Future

I am a teenager in high school

with big legit plans of living big and cool I dream of being a surgeon or a lawyer or an author like Mark Twain

with a beautiful home, phat car, money

and my kids, a model for my wife, my honey Rolling with cellular phones

Not money is all

because my knowledge has grown tall

be a guidance for young ones in the streets Providing the homeless with homes and sheets I feel for some ice cream

Hey! what's happening, oh, I forgot It's a dream! But doesn't mean it can't come true

Because my life I control and rule!

5

Having a Different Attitude Toward Differences

I come with the realness

left right look feel this

my rhymes are created

while you're taking medicine

'cause you say you're constipated your girl got DMS DT on your back

and you owe some n-- dough or they'll kill you while laying in the sack

Peops think you playing

So you knock 'em and pound them while they a laying jokes aside

you play with me you and your head's got no place to hide

If you dare to step to me with a blade or a gun

I'll be telling my murder of you to a priest or a nun A shot won't do. I advise opening me up and make sure my heart stopped pumping.

because your life and anyone else be destroyed and your girl be hue one humping.

6

I thank you God for another day of life and thank you so I pray

I thank you God for a home

family and friends so I wouldn't be alone for clothes and food

while I'm making it in the hood

Also thank God for the air and creatures

which you add to this world it's beautiful feature Last but not least

I thank you for forgiving me and others

and help the ill and the homeless in shelters.

•

7

Corporal Michael N. Toro

My brother Michael, whom I call Mike,

is someone I respect and like. Every weekend he comes to visit. He teaches me many things. When he's not home,

I hope it's him when the phone rings. He bought a car

because he comes from very far; gives me money, helps me out

when I ain't smiling and have a pout.

The marines made a great man out of him. Maybe I might join. For now, I'll chill

like the wind through a windmill

8

In Search of a Song Volume 304

M=rn~~~~~~~~~~~~

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a waterways publication