Adventures of a Frisbee, By ELVIA GUERRA, age 11

The frisbee he got tired of sailing to and fro and thought about some other things.

The next time that he threw it, it turned there in the sky.

He sailed away to find something new he could do.

He tried to be a glass, but no one could see through him.

He tried to be a UFO, but everybody knew him.

He tried to be a dinner plate, but he was cracked.

He tried to be a pizza, but he was tossed, baked, and bit.

He tried to be a hubcap, the cars all moved too quickly.

He tried to be a record, but the spinning made him sick.

He tried to be a quarter, but he was too big to spend.

So he rolled home quite gladly to be a frisbee once again.

The Shark, also by ELVIA GUERRA

My dear, let me tell you about the shark.

Though his eyes are bright, his thought is dark.

He’s quiet and speaks well of himself; so does the fact that he can swim.

But though he swims without sound, when he swims,

He goes 100K around with those bright eyes and one dark thought.

He has only one thought but he thinks a lot and the thought he thinks can never be completed.

Is his long dark thought of something to eat most anything?

I have to add that when he eats, his manners are bad.

He is a gulper, a ripper, a snatcher, and a grabber.

Yes, his manners are drab, but his thought is drabber.

He can never complete that one dark thought of something or of anything so many of you can eat.

Be careful where you swim, my dear!

Elvia Guerra is one of a group of students at Samuel Gompers Middle School in Los Angeles whose work appears in “Arcadia Poetry Anthology, Winter 1994” (Arcadia Poetry Press, 1101-A Sovereign Row, Oklahoma City, Okla. 73108).