A Punch Buggy Car

A punch buggy car. Purple. A road. Hard and bumpy. Nighttime. No other cars. We were homeless. My mom. My big sister and me.

We slept in the car. We had to, because we had no home. I slept in the back seat. My sister laid in the front. My mom also laid in the front. Her head was back. My sister's head was on the side. I laid flat.

When we woke up, we had to find a bathroom. Sometimes we had to stop by the park and use that bathroom and wash our body. It was a bad, bad smell. We had to go to IHOP and we only got one pancake and we shared it. That was our breakfast. A lot of times we had to eat fast food. I didn't like it, but we couldn't get real food. Mom said we couldn't keep it in the car anyway.

When I was tired of sitting in the car, I would talk to my mom. She would always say a prayer so we could have a better life. We should buy kids good food when they are homeless. We should help them out.

Rambling Thoughts Along the Way

It was a hot day. Me and my mom we were carrying big trash bags with bottles to the recycling center. We were sweating a lot. We were carrying them to get money. We were walking because we never had a car. We've always been walking.

We had to recycle to get money and we had to walk blocks and blocks to the recycling center. It was so hot we couldn't even talk. We didn't have the strength to talk, and if we did talk, all we said was, I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, and we're almost there.

We saw graffiti along the way. I think graffiti is something gangsters like to do to show off. Where the graffiti is painted, it looks really dull and dark. But what I do admire of them is that actually after all, it is beautiful, but I think they shouldn't waste their time drawing everything they draw on walls and property that is not theirs. I think they should enter art classes or
stuff like that.

In My Dreams

In my dreams I float away
being what I want to be.
I want to make a difference
in the world.
But when reality strikes
What I see is something else.
I see closed doors
With no way of opening.
If I had a key the door would
Open
As smooth as a cloud.



These are three pieces of art from SPIN's critically acclaimed exhibit, "Through the Eyes of Children: Lives in Poverty." Hopes, dreams, and stories all need to be told, but sometimes words aren't enough. We are trying to show the world what everything looks like through our eyes. Everyone keeps saying, "Children are the future." If we are the future, we should be listened to now, while we are shaping our future. We need the care and attention of our parents because they love us. Enough food. Good health care. Safe housing. And respect. We don't want us and our families to be put down just because we need help. Everyone needs help sometimes.

In this exhibit, we show that we have hopes and dreams. We also show the obstacles faced by thousands of other children whose families are low-income. These children are just like us. We want to be doctors, astronauts, lawyers, candy scientists, and many other things that fascinate us. We dream of college. We dream of being so much more than we are now because we know that we can be. Sometimes the only thing stopping us are the barriers society puts in our way. Sometimes the barriers are legal, and sometimes they are judgments people make out of ignorance.

We want you to have a better understanding of what goes on in your own community. We are part of everyone else. We belong to this community, and this community belongs to us.