Graffiti Boy
I once knew a boy
who'd roam street to street
with a brush in his hand
and a bucket at his feet
He'd put little shadows in corners
where sunshine couldn't reach,
And string alphabets into quotes
from books he couldn't read
He'd draw half hearts that'd complete
in a different crimson hue,
And splatter rainbows upside-down,
he couldn't tell violet from blue
He'd paint tides across deserts
that rose and fell with the light,
And birth mermaids in silver
that glistened in a new moon night
He'd sketch open doors in tall walls
that'd make you escape in one look
He knew only a little math
he left behind more than he took
But on one fateful day
they took his brush away
Wrote laws with his stencil
'For ruining walls, he has to pay'
I now know a freckled man
who sits back against tobacco stains
with that bucket in his stretched hand
and pennies soaked in rotting paint.
Copyright © Ayushi Trehan | Year Posted 2017
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