We meet by the lockers
at break
I'm still amazed
that this school
has Cheerleaders
that basketball
not rounders & netball
is the sport played
that we study
the Cold War
' Of Mice & Men'
& the War in Vietnam
that we have 'Hitzenfrei' days
that our German teacher
always forgives our mistakes
that boys & girls
hang out together
that we put on musicals
I've never heard of
That we celebrate the fall of the Wall
that we take school trips
to Concentration Camps
that there's no uniform
that the teachers
rarely explain anything
that the word ' rubber'
doesn't mean ' eraser'
here but something else
that there are stereotypes
like 'nerd' & ' prom queen'
that we welcome grafitti
that we believe in Love
above any kind of Study
that we have the freedom
to pick & choose our failiures
without being sent
to the Principal's office
that we read Kerouac
Carl Sandburg & Ginsberg
that nearly everyone
has lived in at least
two or three
different countries
that we rarely fight
that my crush
plays trumpet
in a ska band
that we go
to the nearby Lakes
on weekends
& the English language cinema
on Tuesdays
that we celebrate Halloween
bit by bit I nearly forget
my All Girls school days
in soggy Britain
where I had no friends
where we sang hymns
every single morning
where we didn't practice
the Love we preached
where our future
was crumbling old Oxbridge
where we had a coat of arms
where we had houses
named after the merchant ships
of our Founder  from the 1600ds
where we didn't dream
of becoming Presidents
or Astronauts but Academics
forever lost in musty books
the flower of our youth, wasted


Hitzenfrei days were days in summer when we were let off school because it was too hot.
Wall - Berlin Wall

You said my fears were irrational
But how do you deem irrational
That which a person whom
Is deeply in love with you
Deems rational,
How do you deem
My fear of losing you
Irrational?

Look at us now
The mess we've become
We've become such a wreck
A train wreck,
That even the finest form of grafitti
Cannot modify

How do you live with yourself
Knowing that you're the one
Who sinked our love boat
Now we're just another superstructure
Consumed whole,
By the unfathomable depth
Of the endless sea,
From the brutal storms of life
We didn't foresee
We cried of pain from heart fracture
Is it love that you lacked
Or was your sense of reasoning somewhat hacked?

How do you sleep, knowing that
You're the one who ripped apart
The delicate petals
To this precious rose of ours
Perhaps you won't make it
To be in the running,
In the Oscars
For the best actor award
But you do at least, deserve a few medals
Like the paraplegic athlete Oscar
For the best disloyalty

I confessed my fears unto you
And all you could do was laugh it off
You brushed the subject off
As if it were a speck of dust
On your shoulders
Rendering your pride, a form of rust
How could you have traded
Unconditional love
For irrefutable lust

You were once my pride and joy
But now a stranger you've become
Another somebody, I used to know
Sad part is that your presence
No longer brings any joy

How could you say that
My fears were irrational
When you fell into the same trap
I warned you of
How could you say
That my fears were irrational
When you succumbed to the spell
And didn't get choked by the smell
Of our burning bridge
How could you just stand there
And watch, while everything
We've ever worked for
Is burning down to dust?

Look at us now.
A premeditated crime scene we are
No evidence left to prove how close we once were
Not even a chalk outline
Look at us now.

1.   Crack, Snapple, and Pop went to shop for designer clothing at the mall.
2.   The mall was closed so Snapple and Crack hopped on Pop and shopped at Macy's.
3.   According to his doctor, King Kong had a fear of paper airplanes.
4.   Santa Monica fell into the ocean because Santa weighed too much.
5.   Crackle entered rehab, they finally got him the help he needed.
6.   As darkness fell over eastern Europe the planes were all grounded.
7.   It makes you think that the president of Poland had ties to the pope.
8.   Or maybe think that the president of Poland and the pope were close.
9.   Because God is making it difficult for anyone to fly there.
10.  You just have to wonder sometimes about the timing of everything.

Cloud of smoke rising above
Revelation of joyous tranquility
A stir within the belly stiffening
A grafitti smiled, you lived within

A mouth stitched, heart un-sutured
Constrained by the apathy you bear
Consolidated in tethered pastures
A stare of silence vigorously imbues

A pleasure to meet your selfish leisures
Hear the voices rattling in throned castles
Run encircling the failed soul games
Good luck from one, another, a mother

I was bred as a hybrid alien, a predictor
Take these words and run, jog on
Your palms saturated with energy
Leave the magic and gallop with horses

Don't look at me I was googled here.

I put the heads of those come to reason on the walls
raised clean of explanation

I occupy observation towers swept with frost
and the listening posts during hopeless invasions

Forget it I came here to fight and
you'll bleed into your grafitti

which converted my thieves hand
into cognac soaked

mandolin adagios

If even for one second
you understood
what you've seen
standing
right in front of you
you wouldn't scream
or pinch yourself
like a subconscious pilot
trying to eject from your dreams
Leave upon leaf peeled back
like the paint that coats the walls
of this mostly silent building
that surrounds you
like a grafitti covered
**** stained nightmare
of petting
and favor games
The digital ******
horrorshow stage
Lights, action,
put some tape
over your camera
Set your microphone in flames
It's impossible to track
the truth
even though it died
bound and naked
but they forgot
where they buried it
You've seen it
just like me
I know you have
Don't worry
that pervasive feeling
of sickening intoxication
wears off in a year or twenty.

I wish some trace of myself could linger on you
When I'm not around
The way lipstick lingers, pink and soft, on a soda can
Even after it is thrown into the trash

I wish I could leave some mark on you
Indelible but unpainful
Like grafitti on a wall
I was here

When I ran my hands across your skin
I wish it smudged and stained us both
Like ink
Or graphite

When I trace your shape with my eyes
I wish it left tracks
trailing gently over your skin
Like veins, soft and purple

I can feel your hand in mine
But I cannot see the gentle dents of your fingers
Pressing into my palms
Like the void left in your pillow when you rise each morning

I remember the feeling of laying beside you
But I cannot see the lines of your sheets
Pressed into my skin
Trailing like ribbons

Where does the sunshine on a sunny day?  
Where do people come out to play?
Where can you ride your bike, skate on your board, have a pint at the pub and watch the world go by?
Where can you picnic or barbeque, learn to kayak or canoe?
Where can you be all alone or part of the crowd if you please?
Where can you play Rugby, Football, Basketball or Frisbee , young or old, small or tall?
Where can you run, let time stand still and be free?
Where can you see children playing in the park, splashing in puddles, people barbequing after dark?
Where can you cross Millennium Bridge overlooking the weir?
Where can you climb a wall, indoors or out, play music on a radio, dance and laugh and shout?
Where can you express yourself in Grafitti on a wall, play with your mates, run and kick a ball?
Where can you see flowers growing free, ducks and swans swimming with their families.
All of this you can see for free any day of the year down by the Quay.

If someone tells you grafitti isn't art, prove them wrong,
It's okay to miss the people who were bullets to you,
Don't lie that you don't have a lighter on you when you really do,
Your mum definitely knows you've tried drugs,
Never be afraid to say 'no', even when you've already said 'yes',
For your own sanity, sometimes you have to stop romanticising, believe what is already there,
Ask someone older and wiser what love truly means,
When you meet someone, remember their eye colour not what they're wearing,
Don't be afraid to find counsel between the leaves of a book,
When your grandmother asks if you're okay, be honest with her,
When a relationship is over, leave, don't continue watering a dead flower,
One day you'll be eighty, you won't have a twenty year olds legs or a ten year old heart,
Turn off your phone one day and be involved in the world around you,
Ask yourself advice, you know you best, learn to trust that,
Do things differently this time,
Choose the one who looks at you as though you're magic,
Good people just made the mistakes and learnt from them before you did,
Take the time to give someone something they really need,
The one you can never watch a full film with will be the one to haunt you forever,
That song in Pocahontas makes more sense than any other you've heard,
The body has seven billion nerves, there will be that one person that gets on every single one,
We've all sat on the kitchen surface and spoon fed ourselves peanut butter from the tub,
Don't worry, eventually soul mates meet, for they have the same hiding place,
If someone needs a minute, give them an hour,
I know it's hard, but just ask,
Thoughts leave deeper scarring that anything physical,
Now and again, write a list of your best qualities,
Chocolate understands,
Better to have loved and lost, than to be stuck with them forever,
Some people you meet you might never see again, at least not in the way you did before,
Love doesn't hurt, loneliness does.