The photo above marks the first time I’ve seen Asher smile. He has a great and mischievous smile. He is coming back to life.

I am committed to openness in my life, but some things are not my business or right to share.

Asher and his brother Issachar, both born in Pakistan, have been through experiences that could have destroyed other people. It has not destroyed them.

Issachar is witty, bright,  and funny, he writes jokes for Bedlam Farm (tomorrow).

Asher is open about his pain and sorrow, he talks about crying sometimes in the night, about slowly coming back to a better place. He has been through a very dark tunnel.

He lives with his mother and his brother, they are close in the way refugee children are often close, their families are quite often all they have left. They talk to one another often during the day.

She is studying to become a nurse, and both boys want to honor her by being lawyers if possible.

She had hoped to be a lawyer before her life was upended.

Sue Silverstein, his teacher, has supported and encouraged him and Bishop Maginn High School has give him the first true refuge of his life. Sue opens her classroom several mornings a week so her students can have a place to meet, be safe, create and grow.

As we  have talked and gotten closer to Asher – Sue tells me I might be one of the first men he has trusted in his life – I felt I was in the company of a poet, the soft way he thinks and talks and reflects.

Like his brother, he has a deep and penetrating intelligence, way beyond his years, not surprising when you hear his story. He has truly lived beyond his years and is struggling to find his own humanity and the humanity of others.

He says Bishop Maginn is in many ways his first home since coming to America. The school is helping him to heal.

He and Issachar adore their mother, and honor her in every way they can. Their love and gratitude for her is deeply touching.

Last week, I gave Asher a book by Jason Reynolds. I read some poems to the class. He loved it and he wrote his first poem over the weekend, which meant a great deal to me. Sue helped  him, she is always there when those kids need her.

He called it “Thoughts Of A Supernova.”

In the video, Asher reads and explains the poem, he agrees it is dark and reflects some of the darkness in his own life, sadness that once led him to very dark thoughts. As always he is honest, soft-spoken and moving. A very worthy person to know, I am proud to call him a friend.

The boys have nothing in the way of things, a lot in the way of heart.

He and Issachar, I discover, love baseball caps but don’t have any. We will have to think about that.  They love their new sneakers. Today I brought them each a sling bag to carry some of their stuff.

He says he is slowly but steadily getting to a good place. I’ve added the video here and also reprinted the poem below in text.

It tears at my heart to hear people trash the new refugees and immigrants to America, labeling them rapists and thieves and gang members come to rob us and steal our services and jobs.

Asher is a profoundly gentle, decent and gifted person, any country ought to be proud to have him here, I am. Come and hear his poem and meet a brave and very human young man read  his first poem, a landmark moment in his life.

I am pretty sure it won’t be the last. It brought tears to my eyes, it has so much feeling.

“Thoughts Of A Supernova”

By Asher

“There was a star,

alone,

The start had been through all parts of space.

it had grown accustomed to the dark…

Even through those dark times.

It’s shone brightly.

Its light was only for other’s however,

the light wasn’t for itself….

The stars core was empty from all it had gone through.

The stars tears were forever left in the universe,

though nothing saw it cry…

It wanted to burn out by its own will,

but didn’t want to put out the light of others.

Now, 

the star’s light is fading, but not by its own tail,

The star was happy it made others happy,

even if it was never happy itself..

but only in its final moments…

Goodbye.”

Pssst, Sneak Preview. On July Fourth, we are launching campaign to get school supplies for the incoming class at Bishop Maginn  High School on the new Bishop Maginn High School  Amazon Wish List. It’s a very inexpensive and manageable list, the plan is to empty it out during the summer. There are only 13 inexpensive items on it.

Many of the students have no school supplies or money to get any. We put the needed supplies up on the Wish List, along with the laptops we need for September.

The school supplies can be bought for as little as $5, the most expensive items are $14.99. If we pitch in, we can give the school the supplies they need to teach these children in the way they deserve. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate America’s birthday. Take a peek. I launch the campaign tomorrow.