Bronx Masquerade: are we...ageist?

 Bronx Masquerade: 

Different Notes, One Song 


    When reading Bronx Masquerade,  I had numerous opinions (some I verbalized last class), and others unspoken. However, I tried to approach the last 1/3 of the book with an open mind. Something that struck me and I haven't been able to stop thinking about was Sheila's Poem on page 137. She says: 

God must love puzzles
the way he scatters our pieces across the table of the world. 
...
It's only on closer examination I learn that no two pieces are alike. 
Is that the plan? 
To force confrontation?
Investigation?
Communication?
...
For a moment the puzzle is done. 
We are one now --  
eighteen syllables. 
A single Poem. 

    I think it was easy to dismiss this book as a collection of underdeveloped, cliche, high schooler/ pre-teen poems. But I think that's hypocritical in itself. We attack states, and upset parents, and education systems for banning books we think are important. Why? Because they refuse to listen. However, I think that I caught myself doing that while reading this book too. Just because these words are written by high schoolers doesn't mean they are of less value, or hold less truth. Sheila's poem really struck me. I was being a hypocrite. I wasn't focusing on the larger story. Okay, maybe the puzzle piece analogy is overplayed and overused. But she's right. Maybe we were scattered for a reason. We have been taught that difference is scary, the us versus them mentality. We are right, and they are wrong. Yet, I've always thought that there is a reason for difference. A purpose. Maybe it's through the difference that we can recognize sameness. If we all lived the same life, looked the same, thought the same, how boring would the world be? Together we all come to complete one puzzle. One song. Even though our pieces are each individual, and at first might not seem like they fit, with a little effort they can come together nicely. 
(Yes. I am aware that's cliche. ) 
    I want to redirect back to Sheila's poem. "For a moment...we are one." She is talking about how in poetry, her thoughts and feelings become yours. You are forced to listen to her in a way. To hear her song. And maybe for a moment, the shared exchange of poems allows each person to be put on the same level of vulnerability, nakedness, and rawness. The same level. I think Sheila (maybe even Grimes) is challenging us. Challenging us to notice the moments when our puzzles come together when we are all on the same level. And instead of running from that, or pushing through; stop and notice it. Bring it to the surface. Maybe even sing it. (or just say it at open mike night)
    The decision to listen to one another and develop empathy is the entire purpose of Grime's books. This does not extend to just people of our age, demographic, or intellectual ability. I think that everyone in our banned books class is someone of great intellect and deep and profound thought. However, I think that many of us fell short of how something so simple, such as Bronx Masquerade, could have challenged us so deeply. Challenging us to find ourselves among the stories of High schoolers. Grimes asked us to listen. Did we?



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