Treasure island

Golding

Lord of the flies

War of winners

Surviver

Counting BY MARGARITA ENGLE

Counting

BY MARGARITA ENGLE

Harry Franck, from the United States of America - Census Enumerator

I came to Panama planning to dig

the Eighth Wonder of the World,

but I was told that white men

should never be seen working

with shovels, so I took a police job,

and now I've been transferred

to the census.

I roam the jungle, counting laborers

who live in shanties and those who live

on the run, fugitives who are too angry

to keep working for silver in a system

where they know that others

earn gold.

When islanders see me coming,

they're afraid of trouble, even though

I can't arrest them anymore—now

all I need is a record of their names, ages,

homelands, and colors.

The rules of this census confound me.

I'm expected to count white Jamaicans

as dark and every shade of Spaniard

as semi-white, so that Americans

can pretend

there's only one color

in each country.

How am I supposed to enumerate

this kid with the Cuban accent?

His skin is medium, but his eyes

are green.

And what about that Puerto Rican

scientist, who speaks like a New York

professor,

or the girl who says she doesn't know

where she was born or who her parents

are—she could be part native, or part French,

Jamaican, Chinese ...

She could even be part American,

from people who passed through here

way back

in gold rush days.

Counting feels just as impossible

as turning solid mountains

into a ditch.

Margarita Engle, "Counting (Harry Franck from the United States of America Census Enumerator)" from Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal.  Copyright © 2014 by Margarita Engle.  Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Source: Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014)

Drum Dream Girl BY MARGARITA ENGLE

Drum Dream Girl

BY MARGARITA ENGLE

On an island of music

in a city of drumbeats

the drum dream girl

dreamed

 

of pounding tall conga drums

tapping small bongó drums

and boom boom booming

with long, loud sticks

on big, round, silvery

moon-bright timbales.

 

But everyone

on the island of music

in the city of drumbeats

believed that only boys

should play drums

 

so the drum dream girl

had to keep dreaming

quiet

secret

drumbeat

dreams.

 

At outdoor cafés that looked like gardens

she heard drums played by men

but when she closed her eyes

she could also hear

her own imaginary

music.

 

When she walked under

wind-wavy palm trees

in a flower-bright park

she heard the whir of parrot wings

the clack of woodpecker beaks

the dancing tap

of her own footsteps

and the comforting pat

of her own

heartbeat.

 

At carnivals, she listened

to the rattling beat

of towering

dancers

on stilts

 

and the dragon clang

of costumed drummers

wearing huge masks.

 

At home, her fingertips

rolled out their own

dreamy drum rhythm

on tables and chairs…

 

and even though everyone

kept reminding her that girls

on the island of music

have never played drums

 

the brave drum dream girl

dared to play

tall conga drums

small bongó drums

and big, round, silvery

moon-bright timbales.

 

Her hands seemed to fly

as they rippled

rapped

and pounded

all the rhythms

of her drum dreams.

 

Her big sisters were so excited

that they invited her to join

their new all-girl dance band

 

but their father said only boys

should play drums.

 

So the drum dream girl

had to keep dreaming

and drumming

alone

 

until finally

her father offered

to find a music teacher

who could decide if her drums

deserved

to be heard.

 

The drum dream girl’s

teacher was amazed.

The girl knew so much

but he taught her more

and more

and more

 

and she practiced

and she practiced

and she practiced

 

until the teacher agreed

that she was ready

to play her small bongó drums

outdoors at a starlit café

that looked like a garden

 

where everyone who heard

her dream-bright music

sang

and danced

and decided

that girls should always

be allowed to play

drums

 

and both girls and boys

should feel free

to dream.

 

Notes:

This poem was inspired by the childhood of a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers. In 1932, at the age of ten, Millo Castro Zaldarriaga performed with her older sisters as Anacaona, Cuba's first "all-girl dance band." Millo became a world-famous musician, playing alongside all the American jazz greats of the era. At age fifteen, she played her bongó drums at a New York birthday celebration for U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where she was enthusiastically cheered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. There are now many female drummers in Cuba. Thanks to Millo's courage, becoming a drummer is no longer an unattainable dream for girls on the island. [note from the author]

Margarita Engle, "Drum Dream Girl" from Drum Dream Girl.  Copyright © 2015 by Margarita Engle.  Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Source: Drum Dream Girl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015)

Golding 10 facts

Lord of the flies

Revelation 1 New International Version (NIV)

Prologue

1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Greetings and Doxology

4 John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b]
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c]
So shall it be! Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John’s Vision of Christ

9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Footnotes:

1. Revelation 1:4 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
2. Revelation 1:7 Daniel 7:13
3. Revelation 1:7 Zech. 12:10
4. Revelation 1:13 See Daniel 7:13.
5. Revelation 1:20 Or messengers

Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth

1Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth

and leaves it in ruins.

He will twist its surface

and scatter its inhabitants—

2people and priest alike, servant and master,

maid and mistress, buyer and seller,

lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

3The earth will be utterly laid waste

and thoroughly plundered.

The LORD has spoken this word.

4The earth mourns and withers;

the world languishes and fades;

the exalted of the earth waste away.

5The earth is defiled by its people;

they have transgressed the laws;

they have overstepped the decrees

and broken the everlasting covenant.

6Therefore a curse has consumed the earth,

and its inhabitants must bear the guilt;

the earth’s dwellers have been burned,

and only a few survive.

7The new wine dries up, the vine withers.

All the merrymakers now groan.

8The joyful tambourines have ceased;

the noise of revelers has stopped;

the joyful harp is silent.

9They no longer sing and drink wine;

strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.

10The city of chaos is shattered;

every house is closed to entry.

11In the streets they cry out for wine.

All joy turns to gloom;

rejoicing is exiled from the land.

12The city is left in ruins;

its gate is reduced to rubble.

13So will it be on the earth

and among the nations,

like a harvested olive tree,

like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

14They raise their voices, they shout for joy;

from the westa they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.

15Therefore glorify the LORD in the east.

Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel

in the islandsb of the sea.

16From the ends of the earth we hear singing:

“Glory to the Righteous One.”

But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away!

Woe is me.”

The treacherous betray;

the treacherous deal in treachery.

17Terror and pit and snare await you,

O dwellers of the earth.

18Whoever flees the sound of terror

will fall into a pit,

and whoever climbs from the pit

will be caught in a trap.

For the windows of heaven are open,

and the foundations of the earth are shaken.

19The earth is utterly broken apart,

the earth is split open,

the earth is shaken violently.

20The earth staggers like a drunkard

and sways like a shack.

Earth’s rebellion weighs it down,

and it falls, never to rise again.

21In that day the LORD will punish

the host of heaven above

and the kings of the earth below.

22They will be gathered together

like prisoners in a pit.

They will be confined to a dungeon

and punished after many days.

23The moon will be confounded

and the sun will be ashamed;

for the LORD of Hosts will reign

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and before His elders with great glory.