Poetry Break: NCTE Award-Winning Poet

Livingston, M. C. (1996). “Arthur Thinks on Kennedy,” in A jar of tiny stars: Poems by NCTE award-wining poets, Bernice Cullinan, ed. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.

Introduction
This poem discusses the hopes of a child in the midst of a changing culture.

Arthur Thinks on Kennedy

When Kennedy
Come to our town
He come with dreams
Got shot right down.

It rained all morning.
You can bet
They didn’t want him
Getting wet.

They put a bubble
On his car
So we could see him
From afar.

But then the sun
Come out, so they
Just took the buble
Clean away.

When Kennedy
Come to our town
Some low-down white folks
Shot him down,

And I got bubbles,
I got dreams,
So I know what
That killing means.
-Myra Cohn Livingston


Extension
Engage in a discussion about reactions to the poem: what is Arthur feeling? What might be happening in the narrator's world? Do you think the event discussed is relevant? More personal reactions might be brought out with questions: When have you felt like your dreams have been shot down? What did you do afterwards?