Raise your glass.

This is for the man
Who taught me how to ride a bike
When I was five years old,
Who taught me how to lay a brick
Wall with my own two hands,
Who taught me how to love
My heritage and my roots
While embracing change and newness.

Raise your glass.

This is for the woman
Who carried me for nine months
Whilst giving me my love of steak,
Who read stories of imaginable fantasy
And sang crackling fireside songs
To lull me into slumber,
Who taught me to Love
Even when she herself had forgotten how.

Raise your glass.

This is for the women
Who know me better than anyone else
For they have grown with me
In ways only siblings can,
Who taught me to fight for myself
And simultaneously be merciful
For I am not a perfect person,
Who gave me all the love I need
And then some simply because
They wanted to.

Raise your glass.

This is for who we were.
This is for who we are.
This is for who we will be.

Raise your glass.

Some blood is thinner than water.
Some ties more easily severed.
Yet we live because they existed
If even but for a single moment
And for that,
We give tribute.

Drink.

It’s 17:49 and I am reminiscing about you
Wondering where I went wrong, or we
There’s still a stab in my heart when
I listen to silly love songs
People talk about love
Photos of you streaming
On my timeline

It’s been 4 years
21st of September
I remember
You looking into my eyes
Eyes groggy
Pale face
Wounded knees

We went to the same summer class together
After that day, I looked forward to Saturdays
Wondering what happiness is in store for me
When I see you again

It was your passion
Coaches impressed
Friends amazed

It was I who asked for your number
We talked, laughed at our jokes
Calling for no apparent reason
Sending group texts
With you the only recipient

Days went by and we talked less
Classes started and became busy
I sent you numerous texts
Waiting for your reply

But you never did

Maybe, I got tired of making it up to you
Maybe, it was simply an infatuation
An infatuation you may call
That still went on for four years
And so I quit

I accepted the consequence
Of not being able to talk to you
And see you again
Maybe, I wanted to live a life on my own
I tried to find happiness
So I can finally move on

As I stared at you last summer
In that dark and cold auditorium
As I watch you perform and do
What you loved most

I was once, disheartened, again
Watching you from afar
When I can be beside you

I met you outside
But we just passed by one another
My heart still pumping
And my eyelids carrying
A bucket of tears

-j.t.

My English teacher asked us
to bring a poem in
one that really speaks to us
that resonates within
I did a lot of research
read poems through the night
Wordsworth, Keats, nor Shakespeare
could help me with my plight
I needed just one poem,
an expression to confess
my deeply burning hatred
of this teacher, unimpressed.
So I rifled through the classics,
through the bigwigs and the toffs
but all I found were thee's and thou's and an awful lot of doths
then I was sent a masterpiece
that describes these thoughts of mine
when this teacher says my poetry
is just a waste of time,
so I'll read it out in class today,
then with the Head I'll end up sat
but I'll always be so grateful
that John Cooper Clarke wrote ****.

The last time I fell in love with a liar
You warned me of the heartbreak
The tragic disposition of shallow grace
And panicked distaste.
But the truth reserved itself
Somewhere in a goodnight kiss
And the hurt lay hidden in the sleep.
So when the turn of the century awoke
The complacency of goodbyes fell.