Justin Vera
Justin Moses Vera was born January 28, 2000 at 12:00 P.M. As a baby the first thing he did was try to eat his little fist. To this day he enjoys food and eating, perhaps the time of his birth explains his appetite. The son of Aura Leticia Ordoñez and Juan Antonio Vera, Justin was instilled from an early age the importance of spiritual and moral values. Attending Mount Carmel Primary School, he discovered his love of reading with books from K.A. Applegate’s Animorphs, classics like Black Beauty, and War of the Worlds. Going to Mount Carmel High School, Mr. Vera discovered his love of writing. He took off by writing poetry, plays, and his favorite — prose. His letter to the editor of the Amandala Newspaper, “Justin is Angry”, was his first published work.
The Teddy Bear
There once was a cozy little fluffy
Teddy bear that rested in a wooden
Crib, among soft, and velvet red pillows.
So cherished, so loved, so...so innocent.
Once on Christmas Eve, a pungent smell of
Alcohol filled the atmosphere. PLATES BROKE!
FURNITURE EXPLODED! A cutting scream,
And the front door fell shut. The white clouds in
The sky soon vanished. The teddy bear’s crib
Became a wet, cold, hard floor. Its insides
Stuffed with contraceptives for him And for
Her. Teddy became a purse, a “sling” bag
For an infant forced to become “grown up”.
Teddy’s fur once white is white no longer.
Fluffy white fur, half washed once in a while
To remove the stains of miles dragged across
A muddy terrain of lost dreams and hope.
Days of a comfy crib and soft pillows,
A bygone thought, faint as the passion of
The girl once loved, that lives on in torment
Of the scream on a Christmas Eve prompting
Her to abandon home and to “grow up”.