MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — A Union County high school student has become a poet during COVID-19.

Kaleb Dufrene, 17, is immunocompromised, which means if he gets the coronavirus he has an even higher risk of getting severely ill.

At the start of the pandemic when he was feeling anxious and sad, he started writing. He eventually wrote 90 poems.

Next month he'll publish the poems in a book called Uneven Sidewalks.

“The poems themselves can express this universal message of empathy, that we're all kind of walking down the same uneven sidewalk but all of our cracks our different,” Dufrene says. “So, I'm just hoping that this can be kind of a source of inspiration and a turning point for other people.”

Dufrene's collection of poems will be released on Amazon in early November.