Shomari Mzaliwa, a student in Grace Lena’s ESL class at Doolen Middle School, provides us with a poem that wonderfully animates the bittersweet feelings of the end of the semester and the beginning of summer. Shomari’s rap inspires with repetition, pops of alliteration, and consonance, and reminds me as an educator and a poet to bring poetry back to its roots in song. Use this poem in class as an example to students: "Poetry says Yes! Let it all in, that thought you had about pizza can speak to the bigger disappointments and celebrations of our days!"

Disappointments when there is no pizza

Pizza.

I hear people talking about pizza.

Pineapple pizza

Pizza looks like my head because it’s Pizza.

Me and my family eat pizza.

Pizza Pizza Pizza hey.

Rap is about pizza.

Carolyn Ferrucci is a poet from New York City whose work revolves around the weather and relation. She currently teaches language arts at the Idea School and volunteers with Mariposas Sin Fronteras, and is to complete an MFA in Writing from Bard College in the summer of 2019. Carolyn has been a teaching artist with non-profits such as Materials for the Arts, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Writopia Lab among other organizations and public schools in New York and the Bay Area. Her work can be found in No, Dear poetry journal, and she’s read and performed at the Poetry Project, the New York Poetry Festival, Bergen Bibliotek in Norway, The Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco, and other realms.

Feature photo by Vita Marija Murenaite