Real Change63%
Youth striving for solace and understanding 6%
By Nebeu Shimeles0%
7/15/2026, 9:01:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 5 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Framing Effect, and Indoctrination, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 9.9% saturation with 67 hits. Analysis detected 205 faulty-reasoning hits from 680 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 13.6% and a BS Rank of 6% (29,000 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.80% of the article peer group.
Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth.
For over 20 years, Pongo has used poetry to mentor youth at the Clark Children & Family Justice Center (CCFJC), King County’s juvenile detention facility.
Pongo poetry writing offers CCFJC youth a vehicle for self-discovery and creative expression that inspires recovery and healing.
Through this special monthly column in partnership with Real Change, we encourage you to bear witness to the creativity and resilience of systems-impacted young people, who are so often relegated to the periphery.
Join us in creating a world where every verse echoes with understanding and every heart can find healing.
Struggles
By a young person at CCFJC
Do you know who I am behind my masks?
My first mask is grey.
I use it when I’m bored,
I’m bored all the time,
It’s my most worn mask.
When I wear it, I feel exhausted –
It’s like when the sun is setting but everyone is headed to bed,
But it’s still morning.
My second mask is blue,
I use it when I’m excited
Like I am for tomorrow
Hopefully I get out
To be honest I don’t even know how long I’ve been here
I think like two months–
You lose track of time in here.
Another reason why you always see me wearing my grey mask.
The third mask is green
Because I’m homesick
Home is fun
With my two dogs, Pharoah and Lucky
They’re like my therapeutic friends
Friends that never leave me
I can get mad with them, but I instantly forgive
They’re always there for me
There was this one time where I was upset in my room
It felt like the whole world was on my shoulders
because my dad said he was going to get rid of Lucky
and Lucky knew I was thinking about him and gave me dog hugs
It makes me feel a lot better
My fourth mask is rainbow
This mask resembles who I truly am –
Happy, caring, brave with a dash of smart,
I’m proud of this mask.
The one mistake that locked me in here,
also locked up this mask,
So tomorrow I have the opportunity to free both me and my mask.
Running
By a young person at CCFJC
Adrenaline
Pumping through my body
Exploding up my legs
Expanding through my fingertips
My body glows
With an electric pulse
A grin
Spreads across my face
As I run
The feeling is euphoric
Can this be never-ending?
Chasing the feeling gets rough
My glow dims
I feel like I need a re-charge
Tired, like every inch of me is exhausted
Like I’ve run a 10-mile marathon
Every bone in my body feels like it’s melting
I need to find IT again
When I don’t have IT, I want more
I crave IT like a drug
Every time I get IT,
the more tolerance I build
The crazier things I need to do to chase the feeling
Run away
in a way that lets me feel
something
Bedrock
I don’t really know how to put it into words
I find myself really unstable as of recently
With less control
You could say,
my life has always been on a teeter totter
and somebody placed a truck on the other end
It shot me up and down like a roller coaster,
as though you sat on the edge of a thin branch
unable to determine if it will break
My anger used to fuel me.
I could use it for inspiration,
for understanding.
Because to know other people’s anger,
you must know your own.
But it’s hard to do when you have so much of it,
Like the weight of the ocean is above you.
They say once you hit rock bottom,
there’s nowhere to go but up.
But I seem to stay stuck going –
Left
Right
Backwards
Forwards.
Luckily, I’m determined.
Nebeu Shimeles is Pongo Poetry Project’s co-executive director of development & finance.
Read more of the July 15-21, 2026 issue.
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Analysis
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