Shaf 's Key Ideas from Clap When You Land
by Elizabeth Acevedo

I wrap myself tight around the feelings I cannot share, an unopened present, a gift no one wants.

Who knew death must be so damn polite?

Sometimes, I look at her & it hits me

that she is the only person who can understand what I feel,

but she is also at the root of the hurt I’m feeling.

once you lift a pawn off the board,

you have to move it forward. It cannot return where it was.

I am theirs. You can see them on me.

But I am also all mine, mostly.

I have my fingerprints all over you.

& I don't need the world to see them

to know that they're there.

I’m the child her father left her for in the summers.

While she is the child my father left me for my entire life.