Awarded the Indigenous Poets Prize in the Youth (Arizona) category
Close-up of Conversion by Thomas “Breeze” Marcus
The House of Forgotten Memories
I.
Everyone is crying
Everything is meaningless
Now that you're gone
I wish I could still say
“have a nice day”
II.
It is the memory of Winters Burdette
Who taught me to be brave
And to be sarcastic
When he and my mom
Used to swing me up and down at the park
He would always dryly say,
“I have a deep regard for you, too”
When I said, “I love you”
III.
Denzhone is my name it means to be beautiful
It means something different to me
It means to be brave, to be funny, to be nice
It means feeling great about my eyes and my hair
It means to take care of my younger sister
because she’s not responsible in life
and brush her teeth
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Denzhone Burdette is a member of the Tonto Apache Tribe in Payson, Arizona. She is a 14 year old freshman at Payson High School who writes poems and wants to pursue a career in the medical field. This is her first poem accepted for publication. Her poem acknowledges the importance of her family and how it feels to feel nostalgic for a childhood almost over.