Chapter 6: Central Park Lesson Summary

June 10

Walking through Central Park, a great idea for a poem hits Jazmin. She has a pencil but no paper. She asks several white women who pass by for a piece of paper. They look frightened at the frantic looking black teenager and ignore her. Jazmin is desperate, afraid that her poem will dissolve like a dream. She hunts through a trash can and finds a candy wrapper that should be sufficient. She pays no attention to the passersby who look at her with pity—thinking she's scrounging for food. She writes the poem down but on the way home loses it either on the subway or when she runs up the stairs to her apartment. Although she cannot recollect the words, she vividly recalls the excitement and inspiration she felt when she wrote them. She...