Leftovers (Color Walk Poem)

Mama always sent me to school with a brown lunch sack full of leftovers,

That’s what we had, so that was what I’d take,

I never thought badly of it until the other kids turned their nose up at my Tupperware containers,

They joked about my zip lock bag sandwiches,

Sat their super hero lunch boxes next to my brown, paper sack,

And for the first time I saw just how ugly it was.

I resented my situation,
The chips finally made me cool,
The kids erupted into whispers,
The kids discovered that day that sometimes homemade meals,

So much so that I stopped eating lunch all together,

Unless I found enough change in the couch cushions,

To buy a bag of Doritos from the school vending machine,

But I was more often hungry than not,

Until a new girl joined our class,

And entered the lunchroom with a brown paper sack in her grip,

And as the first joke was made out loud, 

I half expected her eyes to widen with terror,

But instead she smiled,

And offered the bully a slice of her orange,

Could be better than brand name, prepackaged snacks,

Because there was love in a paper sack lunch,

And never again did I feel ashamed to carry that love with me.