The scowl you wear on your face
Like a timeless painting.
The anger etched
To perfection.

You think I do not see?
I can feel your hatred
Seeping towards me.

As I stand at the top of the room
The figure of everything you hate.
I don't mind being hated by you -
I'm just doing my job.

I wish you could see your potential -
I correct you so you'll learn.
If you could turn your attention from disdain
And focus a moment on your education -

The things we could learn on this journey
Together.
Just because I am labelled teacher
Does not mean there isn't much
You can teach me too little girl.

The scowl on your face -
Your perfect determination
Tells me all I need to know -
Slowly, together we shall learn.

Aged twelve i lost my faith in the world. Opened my eyes to my own demise and what followed was a sadness with seemingly no explanation. I looked at the world and how shallow it is and I drowned in it. Where being kind and considerate seemed to get you nowhere.

Where we were getting taught to accept all that was unfair and unjust made me feel if you care you can't trust. And most of this was from our education system, I could see that hidden curriculum. So being the most unlikely rebel I dropped out of school, point blank refused to go, dragged kicking and screaming literally grabbing onto the doorframe until they gave up, and though I was relieved it should be believed that you never really get over someone giving up on you.

So I was left , set adrift. Sit in my pyjamas though I never slept, stay inside and limit my contact with it. Protect myself from it, I wanted no part of it. But the effects of isolation should not be underestimated, it just added to it, introspective perspective, curse of the sensitive proved deadly to my spirit.  I'd Watch my friends play out from my window and wonder how can they be happy, don't they know? Don't they see the worse it gets the more you grow ? It seemed not, so maybe I was just crazy.

Self awareness too early made me wary, it was scary and I didn't understand so I surrendered to that white coat "helping hand" Your child's withdrawn, depressed and suffering from social anxiety, but was that really me? Could they not see?! They asked so many questions but never asked themselves why? Not that I could express what was going on in my mind at the time.

So I took it for gospel as I could no longer hear GODS call. (My faith in him died slowly as I'd pray every night hoping he'd show me the way but he never did) Traded it in for the words of professionals and specialists, cause they must know right? Little did I know it would shape my life for a long time.

Give an obedient child a label and they will stick to it, give an overwhelmed and confused child a label and they will thank you for it! Unlucky for me I was both. Any opportunity to make sense of the world I now saw I took willingly. Turned out mentally ill is what it would be.

The effects of isolation on an already overactive mind cannot be overstated. The battle I fought was with thought. This is why I had no time to speak to or see anybody. It was all consuming in my tiny anatomy.

what a funny concept
learning life through the teachings of others

who are you to teach
me about your interests

who are you to tell me
to buy your book and memorize it.

who the **** are you
to test me on it.

school is not my forté
nor should it be yours

because school is for the weak
I learn through experience.

not mid-terms.

Afire, alight, the hunting stone
The flame burns down deep through the bone
But none may see the tragedy
Of all the hunts gone fruitless.
I don't know how, it's good for I
To try to fret over the sky
For hope and fate are growth and hate
And now I'm driven clueless.

I saw the light of promise die
Those without eyes fall and cry
But this cold night was watertight
My torch still shone the brighter.
I danced around, with light and sound
And without aim an arrow's found
But now the smoke has ceased to choke
I became more the fighter.

The empty space of battlefields
No more is mine to watch and yield
I left the war, but not before
I had my fill of riches.
My comrades fell, alone and cold
I had to leave them, I was told
Their ghosts may chase me through disgrace
Each one left many stitches.

A brief melee, but now it's passed
The future calls, it calls at last.

'Education' these days

Is about 'pure' information

And by information

I mean presenting facts verbatim

And by pure i mean it's taken

As truth with no contemplation


That behind all this initiation

Is nothing  more than total indoctrination

Into cookie-cutter patriotic nations



I mean even the word information

Is unsettling with reiteration

Think of it

like this

Information
In-formation

IN. FORMATION.

Conspiracy? Could be.

Though that is another story.

For now lets call it coincidental consideration.

To keep in mind what's lacking

In a cold calculated system of education



I ask you and i beg

Where's the social validation

That everyone is different

In the way they treat a situation

That people are so vast and varied when it comes to inspiration

And still we wonder why kids in school

Get bullied, beaten and mistaken

Treated by their peers as some kind of social retardation

By other young minds bored and rampart with frustration

From a system failing day by day

Generation by generation

I mean is it no surprise from a society with a hellebent  fixation

Upon competition

Survival of fittest

And human exploitation?


Of mantra screaming profit, selfishness, and lack of real cooperation


Nature over nurture and people under nations


That leave us standing divided and alone amongst as sea of potential collaboration?


And yet we're told to sing our anthems of patriotic proclamations

That we live in lands of freedom, justice, love and consideration.

So please believe me when i see

Your sense of self worth and participation

As something lacking emergent notions

When it's simply in-formation

What we need is real change via total non-cooperation

And to rest assured that our minds, and our childrens mind, and future generations

Are part of real solutions

And also full of inspiration


To take hold of our own thoughts

And redefine the importance

Of something we've all lost

Called self education

So please don't simply repeat after me

Don't seek my words as your savior or salvation

Just find your version of what it means to simply be

And forget what others see

As being in-formation

The past has past,
and from it I have decided to flee.
I no longer care about what
happened then.
So, don't wave your history at me.

Technology is supposed to
lessen the load,
and somehow make us feel free,
But all I see are chains and rooks.
So, don't wave your gadgets at me.

In the educational system I trusted,
through it the world I could see,
But now I know
it's all a show.
So, don't wave your grades at me.

Poetry is an acquired taste;
As dead as it can be,
But write we still,
As words can ****.
So, don't wave your lines at me.

In love I used to trust;
the one and only key.
But then I learnt,
and caring was burnt.
So, don't wave your happiness at me.

You came unexpected and briefly;
Like the sun on a cold winter's day.
You dived and soaked in the waters,
and caused ripples through and through.
Changing the surface for a brief moment of eternity.
Now you've bathed and done;
had your fun.
For this I decree:
I am the errors you left me
So please do not wave at me.

1) Family ***** you up, but at the end of the day it’s up to you how you’ll deal with it.
2) You have to learn how to take care of yourself. Mentally, physically, and spiritually. Nobody’s going to do it for you and nobody can do it but you.
3) Education is very important but bad grades does not equate your intelligence.
4) It is okay to be sad every once in a while. You are allowed to feel vulnerable. The point is being able to pick yourself up afterwards.
5) Appreciate the little things. The smallest gestures of appreciation and love from people around you. It can be as simple as “text me when you get home” and you will see who are the people who matter.
6) You will never be able to fully define yourself. By doing so, you are restricting the idea of change. You are constantly growing–evolving, into a better (or worse) person you were yesterday.
7) Learn to adapt. Adapt to your environment and the people around you but never forget who you really are.
8) Society is weird because you are expected to be yourself but they will shun you if they disapprove.
9) Discrimination of all kind exists. There are thousands of people who suffered/are suffering because of this. As a decent human being, it’s your obligation to treat fellow humans as people.
10) Life is filled with very rough patches. If you are going through hell keep going. Because one day you will look back and be able to say “I’ve been through worse.”
11) There are different kinds of perception of beauty. If you find someone unattractive, don’t be an ******* about it.
12) Intelligence is not equated by beauty or if the woman is wearing makeup or not. They are in no way correlated with each other. Destroy this idea that women cannot have more than one trait.
13) There are different kinds of strength. One can be physically strong and have a fragile heart, another can have the weakest body and have the strongest will.
14) The opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s apathy. Stop the “I don’t give a ****” ******* and treasure the people who matter to you.
15) Soulmates does not necessarily mean romantic partners. It could be your best friend, your sibling, or your parent. This is the person who knows you inside and out and vice versa.
16) Stop hating on others and instead notice the nice things about people. Like you think someone’s haircut looks great, tell ‘em. Makes them happier and it makes you happier.
17) Find your passion, pursue it, but make sure you can make a living out of it. If you’re an artist, learn to market yourself. It is as an occupation just as much as being an accountant.
18) Live in the moment. It’s hard not to dwell into the past or be excited for the future, but you should also focus on the now. You will never be as young or as old as you are right now.”

How chugs the machine,
      my superior?
      my oiled cog?
What new fuel has it this year?
What has it exhausted?
Is there a rusty gear?
Will you cast it out?
Surely it isn't so dear
      that it might stay.

Our hats will be very fancy, won't they?
Our papers will be too.
They will say:
      "I am very good at obeying."

Yours looks very nice on your wall.

Do not treat education as business.
They’re making millions off children
who reside in subsidized housing.

They're making millions off children
who ask mother "what's for dinner?"
even though it's 10:00 pm
and the lack of food in their stomach
has given them a hint as to what the answer is.

They’re making millions off children
who’ll end up dead or in jail before they’re 18.
If you don’t care or if you’re okay with that,
then just keep quiet.

Keep your opinions to yourself.
We’re all entitled to our own.
Quite frankly, I am not offended.
All I ask is that you don’t tell me
it's wrong to want change.

The education system in this country
is bound to fail many, but that does not mean
that I have to as well.
Do not tell me I can't cause change.