Backpack Blues: Ignite the Fire Within (Adirondacks)

By Melody Dean Dimick

Backpack Blues is a young adult story in verse set in a fragile world, the rural Mountain Valley High School, located in the extreme northeastern section of the Adirondack Mountains. ACE JACKSON serves as a master of ceremonies, but each student shares the limelight for a moment.

The narrative begins with an invitation by MARISOL GARCIA to enter the world of her senior class. We hear CORA SIMMONS' cry for acceptance. One by one, Cora's classmates speak about themselves and their lives through the poems they hand in to the English teacher MRS. DEYON, or crumple up and throw into the basket to be retrieved by the snoopy janitor SAWYAH TRUMAN. Sometimes they gossip about each other. More often, they spill their troubles, complain about their lives, or criticize the lack of justice.

ROSS PARROTTE, the ballplayer frequently mentioned by others, makes most of his classmates' lives miserable. His bullying prompts TOBY THOMAS to eat his troubles.

Problems escalate until the day of the senior ball. The anthology of vignettes in verse explores the pressures of home life, relationships, and school life faced by the members of Cora's class. Combined, the culturally diverse poems demonstrate a blend of humor, alienation, and determination.

Backpack Blues celebrates the resourcefulness it takes to make it in the classrooms, halls, and locker rooms of contemporary schools, but also reminds readers no one ever leaves school totally behind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TaylorandSealePublishing
• Release date: Jun 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463896365

Melody Dean Dimick

Melody Dean Dimick’s experiences teaching at Northern Adirondack Central School and the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, as well as her tutoring in Central Florida, provide inspiration for her writing. She is the author of several short stories and a poem published in Florida Writer Association collections.Silent Screams, Book One of the Silent Series novels, features a group of teen manga lovers trying to fit in with their classmates. Readers may follow her blog at MelodyDeanDimick.com.

Book preview

MARISOL GARCIA

This is our letter to the world.

Thanks, Emily Dickinson, for

giving Mrs. Deyon the idea to push

us to write our Mountain Valley High anthology.

We acknowledge Edgar Lee Masters,

whose Spoon River Anthology knocked

our socks off, inspiring us to voice our truths.

You’ll see there was no holding back

in this showcase of our senior year—

we’ve opened our backpacks

for your inspection. Listen

as we share our world—

a shimmering magical snow globe—

if you will—a transparent ball—

but, at times, a whiteout in a blizzard.

ACE JACKSON

You call me the knave of hearts,

but listen to my gossip.

Foul rumors spread like tumors.

YSABEL GOMEZ

I do not wonder

if I should skip school.

My parents rise at four, trying

to get a head start on the day’s earnings.

I watch their efforts to arrive at the fields early,

before the yellow sun sneaks over the skyline.

Despite the scorching heat,

Mom wears worn, worked-out

denim pants, and covers

her arms with a long-sleeved shirt,

the lines on her wrist—

indelible. I sense her pain

as she tries to hide

her bracelet of wounds.

I agonize over the 200 rubber bands

she dons daily.

When tempted to miss school,

I close my eyes and imagine Mom

removing one rubber band from her wrist.

She wraps it around a bundle of ferns

as clippers carve calluses on her other hand.

Yards ahead,

Dad’s thirsting, tired skin

sags, oppressed by the

erosion of his America.

He works for me.

Study hard, he tells me

as we stream north in fall.

In the new school, I notice Mercedes Goldman

wears gold bangles to hide her not-so-secret

scars. I wonder if she’d cut herself if she

saw the purple lines on Mother’s wrists.

But I do not wonder

if I should skip school.

I do not wonder.

MERCEDES GOLDMAN

Most days, I’m an Emily Dickinson poem.

You know, the one beginning,

I’m nobody; who are you?

Today, I’m a curiosity like Bigfoot.

My friends and I wore cosplay costumes.

Faculty members misunderstood our intent,

threatened expulsion, and freaked corporate Mom.

How could you jeopardize your college plans?

She says I must stop living in a fantasy world.

How little she knows about me.

I want to be an animator in my invented world.

Residing in my made-up world

I’ll be spared from Wall Street woes,

bankruptcies, and job losses.

Manga comic-book pages beckon.

But Mom doesn’t care.

She doesn’t recognize goals I hold.

I must fit her chosen mold.

No sense arguing with her.

The disappointment in her eyes,

the contempt in my father’s frown

tell me my words fall on deaf ears.

I see my pain in Willow’s eyes,

and disgust in Ysabel’s stares.

Relief will come tonight.

One slash from my razor, and

emotions drip red from my wrists.

WILLOW PISANO

Pain

Slit

Abuse

Rejection

I recall each wound

A bangle of tears mars my wrist

ACE JACKSON

Don't bet your bottom dollar.

No one escapes from high school.

Don't even bother trying.

CORA SIMMONS

I hear your whispers,

Hick, trailer trash, redneck,

so I put my head down

as I look for a seat on the yellow bus.

This seat’s saved,

Stormi’s glare says.

Her backpack smacks on the seat.

Two words painted in red drip

and shout from the side of our shining

trailer home—NO