Cardamom

Author: Jermoni Benson, 8th Grade

Me and my mom have not been in a grocery store in a
While.
Being pregnant she couldn’t do much in Afghanistan but in America the opportunities are endless.

I almost cry reminiscing the crowded market of Afghanistan as i look at the aisle piled with food.
I see it-
Cardamom.
I rush and rip the plastic, pop the top.
The smell of Cardamom dances in the air
My mind drifts to grandma’s little house in Afghanistan.

It’s funny because my name – Nagris is a flower used to make Cardamom.
Sweet. Ginger. Deliciousness.
We buy 3 big containers of Cardamom to last a while.

We travel back to our house but i think i want to call
This place home.
We make a gigantic meal, sort of like in school what they call
Thanksgiving.
Thinking blissfully of grandma and how she graceful smell of reminds me of my beautiful name.
Truly. Nagris Again.

Overview:

Eighth grade English students at KIPP DC: KEY Academy considered the challenges of fictional and real refugees in their fall unit, centered around a study of the novel Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. The novel tells the story of a young Vietnamese girl and her family who are forced to flee their home during the fall of Saigon and ultimately begin to build a new life for themselves in Alabama. At the end of the unit, students used their knowledge of free verse poetry to write their own narrative poems that captured the universal refugee experience.