The Art of Reality
When I close my eyes,
I see green wind.
Its touch turns the woods green,
gilds my calf gold,
kisses the white walls of the house,
dyes dad’s corns yellow.
But I won’t tell the secret why the wind changes color.
This is the first poem written by Shi Yingsuo, a 12-year-old in Yunnan Province, southwest China. Last year, Shi became a first grader at the Mangshui Middle School in a remote town in the province. The school has a compulsory poetry class. Like Shi, its students are mostly left-behind children—children of migrant workers who have been left home in the care of grandparents, other relatives or even on their own while
