PONGO POETRY | My Other Half

Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. For over 20 years, Pongo has mentored poetry with youth at the Clark Children & Family Justice Center (CCFJC), King County’s juvenile detention facility.

Many CCFJC residents are youth of color who have endured traumatic experiences in the form of abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence. These incidents have been caused and exacerbated by community disinvestment, systemic racism, and other forms of institutional oppression. In collaboration with CCFJC staff, Pongo poetry writing offers CCFJC youth a vehicle for self-discovery and creative expression that inspires recovery and healing.

Through this special monthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery. To learn more about Pongo’s work of inspiring healing and relief among youth coping with mental and emotional turmoil, register for Poetry in Motion, its upcoming event.

by a young person at CCFJC

If you had asked me to understand why you always had to go back and forth,
I would have

If you had asked me to change the way that I was moving when you were still here,
I would have

Sometimes I think I drag death around like a chain

And if only I could have made my jail time shorter
and I were able to be there for you
I would have

It’s just that being left behind time after time feels like I’m just floating
and there’s nothing around me,
no way to know if things have changed or not

My eyes are too bleary to see our old memories and the last time I seen your face,
if only I could see you again

If I could hear you say, 'Brother I’m waiting for you while you’re in there,'
it would make time go by faster.

by a young person at CCFJC

I wish I could go home
to my family
My grandma’s old
she’s 70
I’m looking at a long time
in juvenile prison
not even year,
a year and three months.
My brother does wrong sometimes
my brother is already 16
he turns 17 in one month.
My baby cousin just turned one
I hope he remembers me
if I get sentenced,
I wouldn’t see him again until he’s three

And my brother’s 18
and my grandma’s 73
a lot can happen in that time
I don’t want to miss anything with my family
I’ve been in here and my cousin started talking,
it hurts

I would do anything to go back to school
and sleep home one more time
I worry for his safety
I don’t want any of my family to pass while I’m gone
I really just want to go home
it’s the bad thought of being here
for a long time
what’s really on my mind
is going home to the people
I love most
I just want to see my family

But when you’re in juvie
you don’t have your friends
you have to do things alone
you have to sleep alone,
I’m lost

by a young person at CCFJC

Dear Dad,

I just thought you should know what I’m doing now.

I am a lost but joyful person
who spends a lot of time piecing myself back together 

I just thought you should know how I’m feeling.
I am hurt and disappointed
because you’ve never been there

I just thought you should know what I’ve been through.
Since the last time I saw you, I have hated you so much

The time that I detoxed was especially important.
I just thought you should know what I wish for the future.
I hope that you’re aware of the pain you’ve caused me
I just thought you should know what I don’t miss about you. 

I am glad I don’t have to worry about you giving me drugs
or encouraging the bad anymore.

I just thought you should know what I miss a lot.
I wish that you could’ve been a father and been there for me and my brother.
I just thought you should know you’ve broken me
and I’m left to piece myself back together.