junioRs: aww inspiring,eww inducing

must-read: Rasha on her pesky little brothers and other junioRs

I quite liked this poem by a youngster called Kaitlyn (age 14) over at poems-and-quotes

My little brothers quite the rascal
Who runs around all day
Who demands things upon things
And always gets his way

He jumps up on the tables
And screams with all his might
He'll pull and twist my hair
Or try to start a fight

He'll throw around his toys
He'll throw around his food
Or he might hand them to you politely
Just depending on his mood

He'll talk to you for ages
About things you never knew
Things that dearly bore you
But what's a boy to do?

(...)
But over all this time
I've finally come to see
I love my little brother for who he is
I should just let him be.

Nice.

Speaking of 'family' poems, I liked Kamala Das (who incidentally is reported to have become Muslim lately). These are only excerpts which I found online, the complete poems -- especially her 'childhood' collections (that I read when I was in school) -- are poignant reads.

Punishment in kindergarten

Today the world is a little more my own.
No need to remember the pain
A blue frocked women caused,
throwingWords at me like pots and pans ,
to drainThat honey-coloured day of peace.

"why don't you join the others,what a peculiar child you are?"

On the lawn ,in clusters ,
sat my schoolmates sippingSugarcane,
they turned and laughed;
Childrens are funny things, they laugh in mirth at others' tears.

I buried my face in the sun-warmed hedge
And smelt the flowers and the pain
The words are muffled now,
the laughingfaces only a blur.
The years haveSped along ,
stopping brieflyAt beloved halts
and movingSadly on.

My mind has found an adult peace .
No need to remember
That picnic day when I lay hidden by the hedge,
watching the steel white sun
Standing lonely in the sky.

and 'An introduction'

'...be girl, be wife, they said.
Be embroiderer, be cook,
Be a quarreler with servants.
Fit in.
Oh Belong, cried the categorizers…..’