Open Mike: A Letter to My Mother
- Porscha's poem is all about her mom, who died of a drug overdose.
- At the time, Porscha couldn't mourn because she was so mad, but now she sees the pain her mom was in and understands.
- Now she forgives her.
Tyrone
- The school year's almost over, so Mr. Ward has all the kids' poems bound in a book for them. They're pretty thrilled.
- At their end-of-the-year assembly, Mr. Ward starts out by inviting someone from class to talk about what Open Mike Fridays have meant to him or her.
- Tyrone isn't shy, so he stands up. He says he's gotten to know his classmates through their poetry, learning more about his friends and even people he didn't know well and thought he would never like.
- Then everyone reads poems, and it's awesome.
- After the assembly, Mr. Ward asks Tyrone if he'll be in his class next year. Mr. Ward plans on doing Open Mike Fridays in all his classes.
- Oh, yeah—Tyrone will definitely be there. He's also pretty psyched about the poetry slam Mr. Ward is getting together for next year.
- Nice work, Teach.
Epilogue
- Mai Tren's mom says he's lucky to being going to an American school. He and his mom left Vietnam to come to the U.S. after his dad died a couple years ago. They were allowed to come because Mai Tren had an American father.
- But Mai Tren's not really fitting in at this new school. He's half-black and half-Asian, so neither one of those groups really wants to hang with him. The white kids aren't sure what to make of him yet, either.
- That assembly yesterday was pretty interesting, though—all those kids from Mr. Ward's seemed to get along with each other really well despite their differences.
- Hmm… maybe Mai Tren should check out that English class next year?
- We think that's a pretty darn good idea.