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Lewis Wyn Davies Sep 2020
During my lifetime, teachers have been kings.
Mr. Ellison, with his football obsession, dared
declare the Father worse than der Führer.
Across the hall, Mr. Summerhayes gave us life
lessons, like adults have first names too.

Paul was next in line. A stoker of fiery debate –
he painted landscapes on political wings,
propaganda and the bluebirds of South Wales.
He tried his best but Pete pulled me aside
when depression began to blacken my mind.

Bigger steps made things more complex.
But he welcomed me back to his class,
always asked how my mother was doing,
embraced my erratic emails and career plans,
until we lost contact after his retirement party.

Now I write this poem from a pit of shame –
a decade on and my destiny remains lost.
Sometimes I meet royalty again in the shops.
My head is hung and my words are cut short.
I’ll never stop trying to be what you thought.
Poem #4 from my collection 'A Shropshire Grad'. Originally written as a competition entry for Teacher Appreciation Week, I found the personal reflections included were too raw to throw away forever after being overlooked in the contest.
manlin Aug 2020
Despite suffering from illness,
****** assault from a once trusted individual,
being told I do not belong in my own country,
and shoved away by supposed peers and professor at my institution,

I remain.
As steadfast as ever,
protecting my place, country, and
family.

No matter how exhausted
or how shattered my current frame of reality may be,
I never cheat on my schoolwork or exams
like the same peers who belittle me.

Me, who is there:
patiently waiting,
always the last,
seeking help after another misstep;

Nonetheless,
diligently remaining on track,
amidst the others descended from the Esteemed,
Who continue the cyclic tradition of oppression.

While I acknowledge that
the absence of refuge
for the trodden
has existed for many centuries,

and even myself as of now,
I understand it to be ill-gotten privilege
I may have stolen
from another applicant more promising than me;

I remain in
This Place
amongst books
and the International Royalty.

Beginning from
such atrocities
in both blood, home, and later within the educational institution,
I never had any interest in making a name for myself.

I did not apply to college because I was told to—
it is because I was predominantly told the opposite.
Facing the shouting and dismissals
from those closest in blood and esteemed teachers at school.

In this time of a loosening socioeconomic hierarchy,
finally exposing the Freedoms of this Nation
Our Ancestors could never dream of,
We Must Remain, Learn, and Fight!

Revel in how
Unfulfilled we are,
Remain Loyal to your well-established Ideals,
and Fight!
honeyed Aug 2020
i wish youd hurry up and hate me
i just want you to degrade me
im tired of waiting
i feel like im deteriorating
across the bedroom i see your eyes dilating
but im just spacing
i should feel elated
but all i feel is jaded
as i lay here stark naked
all i can think about
is you leaving for college
while im left here, looking for solace

i knew what i was getting into
so why do i want to miss you?
you were supposed to be a distraction
how was i supposed to know my heart would have such a reaction?
Bard Aug 2020
Academia can *******
Had to learn trig to pass
A test pre req for a class

That algebra is all that needs to be known
Intro chem is not a place for tan, cos, and sin
Yet I had to learn and teach it all on my own

After Doing the teaching and learning
They came around and started charging
Hundreds and thousands for nothing

So academia can *******
Had to learn calc to pass
A test pre req for a class

Do your ******* job teach me how to get a job
These administrators are just some ******* slobs
Paid three hundred grand to play with their knobs

If the systems broken fix it or at least override it
Instead you support it while students go into debt
How the **** do you run at a deficit and yet

You take every sweaty blood stained penny
Shake down every downtrodden who looks sorry
Sorry that college was the only choice outta poverty

Academia can eat my ******* ***
Didn't learn **** but I'll still pass
Cause they don't teach **** in the class
Grace James Aug 2020
Another year older.
Another year ahead.
21.

Time to drink, celebrate.
Be in your prime.
Chase your dreams.
Be reckless.

Be fearless!
Think of what you can do,
for everything is on the table.
Nothing is off limits.

But learn your lessons.
You've been around the block now
once or twice.
You've been hit hard.

Now is the time
to be smart.
Let the past be a teacher,
a reminder,
an old guide.

Let the future be a new,
mysterious friend.
A path to more,
to beyond,
to better.

It's in your hands now.
Happy birthday.
21.
dorian green Jul 2020
i never bought the whole dark academia thing.
sure, ****** and drugs and *** are torrid and dark when you're from a rich family,
when you've never woken up to the news of your childhood best friend being shot to death,
when you haven't seen your family and friends fall into the seductive cesspool of opioid addiction,
when half of your class was pregnant by the time senior year rolled around.
the academic upper class thinks what working class kids go through is sexier when the backdrop of the overdose is chandeliers and silk,
instead of a small town parking lot at 3am.
my aesthetic reality of academia is scholarships, it's leather jackets and nicotine addictions
it's having the only fifteen-year-old car in the campus parking lot and hoping to find a plug before the first week of classes.
it's not sleeping between work and class and partying. it's being the only one whose dad isn't buddies with the guy giving me an internship.
it's lonely. it's the crippling loneliness of not understanding upper class social cues,
it's reading crime and punishment in the slivers of time between work and work and class and more work
and emphasizing with raskalnikov so much it makes your teeth ache.
it's coughing up blood.
it's having health insurance for the first time in college and still not using it.
it's drowning, it's fighting, it's violent and heroic and painful and
never knowing
if you'll actually
make it.
Gabriel Girault Jul 2020
Dear [Redacted],

          It's been about four months. I'm proud and sad to say I still think about you every day. You are still my first thought when the sun's morning rays awaken this slumbering fool. You are still my last thought before I escape into my consciousness at night. And If I could remember my dreams, I could remember my dreams instead of the darkness that envelops them, I would bet that you were in every single last one of them.

         Four months of you not being in my life and you're still my muse. The reason my endless thoughts don't end with just tears on a page, but with words to express myself deeply. I still remember the feeling I got when I looked deeply into your eyes. My soul remembers the joy it felt when I heard your name. [Redacted], I thought of that name all day, just so I can listen to it all night. The reason I slept peacefully, the reason I woke with joy. [Redacted].

        Four months without you.....I gotta keep going. Although my heart pounds for you like the day we spent our first date, being nervous wrecks, still working but oddly satisfying. I must keep going without you. I still unfortunately love you [Redacted]. But now I must go.

~ Still with love, "An Unfortunate College Love Writer"
will Jul 2020
in forty three days
the world will shift
not for you maybe
not even a bit

but in forty three days
my axis will tilt
and fall to the ground
shattering there

in those forty three days
I will change again
and move far away
never to be seen again
Branden Jul 2020
High School, and all it entailed
The groggy early mornings,
And stress for classes not to be failed
The lunch table ramblings,
And pep filled rallies
Even the final review game tallies,
Figuring out what I wanted to do,
And my ignorant love for you
Feels just like yesterday,
But yesterday's beginning to feel rather far away.
Mom: "Say Hello to School"
Infant: "High School"
Mom: "Very Good"
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