Erin Yabuki

Change


I worry for you
School's as easy as tying your shoe.
Why must you fail almost every class?
Can you at least pass?

As soon as you came back that one night
Seeing you again was a magnificent sight
But I knew they had kicked you out
I missed you, no doubt

There was so much to tell you
Different things that I have been through
Like the movie D.B is in
That's how I told you how things have been

The museum, do you recall?
Why like the museum when right down the street was a mall?
The Eskimos, the elephants, and things that are strange
You said that it was because museums never change.

Everyone's growing up, can't you see?
Even though you disagree
It's time to take some responsibility for your actions
So you can live with everyday satisfactions

Please don't hold me back
Youth is something I want to lack
Change is good can't you see
I think it's time you let your soul free

Analysis:

I wrote this poem pretending to be Phoebe writing to Holden. I imagined that she was trying to help him because they are so close. I think that Phoebe is his one tie to reality. She's in touch with what's real. She is willingly growing up, despite the fact that Holden is trying to hold her back.
For the first verse, Phoebe knows that Holden is failing. She knows that he has flunked out of four schools, and she is worried about him. She wants him to succeed.

"You did get kicked out! You did!" Old Phoebe said. Then she hit me on the leg with her fist. She gets very fisty when she feels like it. "You did, oh Holden!"
…"You did! You did!" she said. Then she smacked again with her fist. If you don't think that hurts, you're crazy. "Daddy'll kill you!" she said. Then she flopped on her stomach on the bed and put the goddam pillow over her head. (pg.165)

You can see how emotional she gets when she finds out that Holden got kicked out again. Not only is she worried about him; it also makes her sad that he's not doing well.
Then I wanted to write about the museum and how he likes it because things never change.
"The best thing though in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd moved. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be there just catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers, and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. (Pg. 121)
So as you can see, Holden really liked the fact that the museum never changed. I thought that was so interesting so I wanted to incorporate that into the poem.

Just Not Meant To Be

So, every since I was old enough to talk, I always wanted a dog. But having 2 siblings plus my dad was enough for my mom to handle. Of course, two of those siblings are boys which means they are annoying little brats that cause trouble just to annoy my mom.
Year after year I kept on insisting on getting a puppy. My mom would come up a colorful plethora of excuses as to why we shouldn't purchase one. Some of those excuses included me not being very responsible or caring, I didn't have the time, the dog would run away and good stuff like that. She even came up with an impossible criteria that the new dog would have to fit. The dog had to be small, non-shedding, non-barking and would have to be able to take care of itself for weeks when we went on trips. Even though my mom was being a total meany about this whole pet situation, I persisted on the idea. She finally caved in about two years ago but only about an inch. She allowed me to get fish as a trial. So I took this on as a challenge. I had a really pretty fish tank with five multi-colored fish gliding around. After about two weeks, I stopped feeding them and cleaning the tank because I thought it was the most tedious thing in the world. So of course the tank got disgusting and green, the fish multiplied from five to like twenty. Since they were starving, the big fish would eat the small fish and it just wasn't a good situation. So my mom proved her point there. But then a couple months later, my mom brought home a Jackson chameleon. Let's just say they aren't the most radiant and beautiful thing in the world. They are green, scaly, long-tongued and gross. My older brother Chad wanted to name it Spiky but my younger brother Brayden wanted to name it Henry. For some reason the most randomness name ever Henry stuck. Everything was going smoothly, we would feed it live crickets and worms and take it for long walks on the grass outside. Henry was definitely no puppy but I still loved it. One day, I took him out for a walk outside. So I put on the oven mitt and carried him to our front yard. I put him down and watched him walk at a rate of 1 centimeter per minute. It was actually really entertaining until Brayden came out of no where and totally stepped on Henry. It wasn't a good feeling to see your pet Jackson chameleon named Henry being squashed by your younger brothers foot. I was totally in shock and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I stood up super quick and pushed my brother down. I looked at Henry and he was all-flat. But then something weird happened and Henry started to inflate as if someone was blowing him up like a balloon. I can't really explain my reaction when I saw Henry expanding but I pretty much thought he was going to explode. But surprisingly, he was fine but he couldn't zap out his tongue to eat anymore. So after about a week, he sadly died. I was super pissed off at Brayden for killing Henry but it taught me that I wasn't made for having pets. My fish turned into cannibals, poor Henry got stepped on, and I also had those little mini pets like a crab named crabby but he ran away after a couple hours. Considering we lived on a tall hill with no ocean for miles away, I don't think crabby made it that far. I can't forget our pet opihi named Opi but then my grandpa ate it unknowingly. So I now live my teenage years petless and I don't think I will be buying a dog anytime soon.