By Charisma Holly
11th grade | Detroit Edison Public School Academy Early College of Excellence | Michigan
Finalist, Climate and Environment category

With lines from "The Soil Farmers: Black Food Sovereignty and Climate Solutions" by Justin Cook, a Pulitzer Center reporting project

Plant a seed in me.

               My earthy hues hold a history of

               forgotten and forsaken agriculture;

                              Born into a culture that is still unlearning to rip off its own petals

                              and now realizing how to nurture itself:

It’s a healing process,

               as in we’re healing the land,

                              we’re healing the soil,

                              we’re healing ourselves

               along the way.

Water me at my roots.

               I can only grow when I am

               connected to where I come from;

                              Pour into my mother too as

                              she is the earth that brings forth

                              new life.

New light shines

               through the twisted branches

               of family trees to remind us that

               we are a people

                              one people

                              one person is all it takes to start.

Be green-thumbed gardener;

                                             good steward.

Hug my thorns gently

               and if I should wilt, take the

               browning leaves and remind them

               that spring will come again;

                              that they may return to the soil

                              to help someone else grow,

                              just as the peanut plant did;

                                                                                          Like tilling

                                                                                               Like watering

                                                                                                    Like growing

                                                                                                         Like healing

                                                                                                              the rich black and brown

                                                                                                                   soil inside of

                                                                                                                        you,

                                                                                                                   me,

                                                                                                                                       us,

                                                                                                                                                      All of us.


Charisma is a rising senior at the Detroit Edison Public School Academy High School. She enjoys writing poetry, performing spoken-word, participating in theatrical arts, being at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and exploring new things. As a young, Black girl from Detroit, Charisma has seen first-hand the power of building community and expressing creativity. She uses poetry and spoken word art to share her voice in hopes of inspiring others, impacting her neighborhood, and making the world a better place.

Read more winning entries from the 2024 Fighting Words Poetry Contest.