Javier’s class is digging dirt
in the community garden by P.S. 102 in the Bronx
And Javier says: ”why am I digging dirt, I haven’t done anything wrong?’
He knows that men from Leland Ave., from the barrio, maybe from the block go to jail
go to prison

He knows that men from the block
wear orange vests; paint benches, bag weeds
in black plastic in the park, dig dirt—
this is called community service. Yet, digging in the earth,

Njeri finds a worm.
“Can I take this one home?” Ellie comes,
digs worms too.

Summer rolls along; Rasheed
tells the teacher: “I got affection for the sweet potatoes
I planted, it’s beautiful.”

Will fifth-grade Javier
get warm soil under his fingernails, sow zinnias?
Smile
at their rainbow heads?

---

About the Author: children in an inner-city school playground dig in a small patch of dirt.