Through the dust, my mind still recites alphabets to the wind.
I wanted to learn every syllable I needed,
Every matrix that could build up ideas,
Every algebra I was born to solve.

Where I grew is the bedrock of ignorance.
The belief is that foreign knowledge will erase our heritage—
But it doesn’t.

I can solve many X's in my head,
But there’s not a single grain from my mother’s farm
I won’t multiply with immense profit.

The calculus I carry stands a chance at winning,
Yet I still crave the kind of knowledge
That builds roads, draws out buildings,
And makes every waiting child
Become another epitome of wisdom.

I just need a chance to prove I’m worth every trial.
I can face competitions meant to break me down.
And I will rise—
Because no one is born with knowledge.
We all grow to learn.

I got an E in Friendship

I breezed through the multiple choice
I had the theory down pat
But I bombed the practical

And I got an F in Romance

i went back at twenty-three,
to the school that survived me.
the rebel, the headache,
the girl who wouldn’t listen —
and thought of this building
as being trapped in a cage.

it felt like coming home.
my teacher grinning wide,
filling me with warmth,
hugging me from the side
during the memorial,
as if the teenagers on stage
weren’t reciting poems
about the war.

he kept leaning in,
whispering jokes
of old times.
shushing didn’t work –
i was secretly glowing
in their unexpected pride.

they called me the proof.
an example, that
the troubled can bloom.
but all i could think
was how they loved me
through my worst,
and still do.

Russel was given the nickname ‘Knowsy’,
Because he knew just about anything.
If the signs weren’t apparent, like the glasses on his nose,
Russel was a nerd, and believe me, Russel knows.
Whenever someone needed help on a test,
“Russel knows,” and he dealt with the rest.
When the **** needed to finish his homework,
“Russel knows,” and then the **** forced him to work.
Oh, the curse of knowledge,
How the nerd turns from a laughing stock to a precious commodity.
Reduced from a human,
To a know-it-all without an identity beyond his brain.
Russel hated how he knew this pain.
Haley needed a favor,
An assignment was due,
And she couldn’t afford to fail.
So she went to Russel,
Not knowing about his crush,
Would his heart prevail?
He was skeptical,
Why was the prettiest girl in the world talking to him?
He had envisioned this in his head,
But it was only hypothetical.
Russel knew that it was too good to be true,
When the first words she said were,
“What did you get on number two?”
He was being used…again.
Russel knows how it feels to have your smarts be used against you.
Russel knows how knowledge can wound you.
Russel knows these things to be true.

Time

Time is a tube that
connects you to ever
the past at one end
and the future the other

Time is the moment
this photo was taken
your first year at school
with your class in the yard

The looks are still there
expectations forever
caught by the shutter
that day in the sun,

decades ago now, many
hopes later. Still learning
what life is connected
by time.

Eelco van der Waals

I asked if you recalled
the time in the snow
to mega bed you hauled
your bag and your speedo
Got there, you sprawled
said your back had a blow
Said the mushrooms you did
made your self-worth glow

You claim you're too busy though
I know you still care
but something warm fills me whole
not happiness, its unfair
How you once trudged through the snow
just to smell my hair