Sa'Nai's Writing Portfolio

Current Publishing 

During our poetry unit, we had the privilege to collaborate with graphic design students from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Each graphic designer set out to design forms and distribute our poems in unique ways that addressed the central message of each poem. Below you can see my poem’s design by Taylor. Enjoy! 

Previous Publishings

As a class we recently finished reading the Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor. This book tells the story of a Black family during the 1950’s during the civil rights movement. These diaries were written by students from the perspective of one member of this family, either ‘lois, the youngest daughter, father, or mother as the family faces discrimination, segregation, and racism.

The Pretend Wedding 

“You May now kiss groom”

“ Oh ,hey, you're probably wondering what’s going on and how we got here so let me tell you…”

”One night a couple of days ago I realized that Kali was always playing with the stuffy I gave her,and since my mom was putting a dress on her,I gave her a big purple  bow and put it on her,I  grabbed the stuffy I gave her then. I got one of the fake plastic necklaces I made when I was three, then I gave Kali the stuffy and said. “Kali do you love scruffles?” she quietly said 

“yeah”so i said to her 

”You may now kiss the groom”.

And somehow she understood me and started hugging the stuffy and then I put the necklace on her and I shouted 

“THEY ARE MARRIED!!”.

Then Kali started to clap, smile, and laugh. It was funny and now she loves the stuffy even more now. After the *wedding* I wrote a fake marriage certificate and then I read it out loud to my parents  and I  tried to look like a true professional and at the and I shouted

 “You're officially married! woohoo!”.

And then once again Kali did her quiet clap as she smiled at me and then she immediately hugged the stuffy and laughed as I giggled. Then I instantly remembered if you get married you need photos so I grabbed my mom’s phone, fixed Kali’s big purple bow, and took a photo,I tried to make her smile at the camera and I picked up the toy that she also liked and he said

 “Kali look!”

she looked and she smiled her brightest smile and the photo came out and when I showed it to her she smiled again. Then I started to add a text to the photo that said, husband and wife. Then I grabbed a Mickey Mouse stuffy and I threw it in the air and I caught it and I shouted “I CAUGHT THE BOUQUET!”

then   Kali  started to giggle because she likes it when I shout out weird and funny things.And then I grabbed a few pieces of toilet paper and put them across the living room floor.and since Kali knew it was trouble she liked it and she played with the toilet paper for about an hour.After,I gave the marriage certificate to my parents to read and when they read it they said

” Oh really?”.

After that, i grabbed the phone again and sent all the wedding photos to me.It was getting late so had to go to bed and so did Kali but before we went to bed she picked up the stuffy I gave her, and my mom picked her up at the same time and that night we both slept good.Now we need the honeymoon in her crib(it’s to pretend ).

”so now you know why I had said *you may now kiss the groom* in  the beginning of the story.”

One morning I found out about my baby sister.

I remember waking up that morning when my parents had a surprise for me.I had kept on asking my parents what it was but they kept on saying I can’t tell you what it is.So  about an hour after that my moms friend Dayzha came over to watch me while my parents got my surprise ready. About an hour later I my parents were supposed to get home as soon as my parents left I started to ask Dayzha what it was, hoping she would spill the beans but she said the same thing as my parents,”you will love it,you’ve wanted this for years and it will last forever.I walked to my room to think about what it was.then I smelt food so a made a bowl of popcorn and the smell of the butter was amazingly good and made me think of some stuff.I  thought about somewhere I’ve wanted to go to for a long time.I thought of a lot of things,like Hawaii but I doubted that after a while.next thing I know I heard the popcorn go “BEEP!”.I took out the popcorn and I started to eat at the table when my parents got home about 30 minutes early.Then Dayzha left .My parents told me to sit on the couch ,close my eyes and wait for the surprise .As they said that i was so excited that I had jumped right onto the couch.I had to wait about 5 minutes until my parents came out with my surprise. They slipped into the room they said”you can open your eyes now!”.I quickly opened my eyes as I saw a small husky stuffed animal sitting in front of me.”a husky stuffy?”I thought to myself.i  started to make a confused face and then my parents giggled  I asked “what's so funny?”they said “squeeze it”I started to squeeze the stuffy and i heard a static like noise ,I said”HUH what is going on?I was very confused. They said it's a baby’s heartbeat.”They said”mommy's pregnant.”I smiled at my parents  as I started to cry tears of joy.That day was the best day of my life!