graffiti
Words scrawled on the wall erode by magic,
as it eats away at the paint, renders
the writer’s message in tragic
lines that blur, but don’t fade as the number
of viewers rises to include a young
man, illiterate, who sees only lines,
takes away no meaning nor does his young
son who’s tugging his hand, pulling out of line,
not interested at this time in words
written by adults on stone walls, left for
people who don’t have adventures; forwards,
he wants to go where there’s just canvas for
life to paint fantastic landscapes, simple
pleasures or destinies without ripples.
~ ~ ~
Inspired by Poetry 101’s prompt graffiti.
A great response to the prompt! 🙂
I love this! Every line speaks the reality of the nature of graffiti, and the reactions of people towards graffiti – a lot of people don’t think about graffiti much as they look at if they have more engaging things in mind (me included).
I don’t think I can look at graffiti without pondering about the meaning behind it anymore!
Me too, and when I see the more embellished letters, I want to hand the artist a copy of fontography and tell them to have it! Make cool fonts for us! 😉 Thank you for your comment 😉
Haha, yeah – also, funny how the people do the graffiti are generally just thought of as delinquents, but we forget they are artists too (although vandalising other’s property is still not right of course)
You’re right about the vandalizing of other folks’ property; that is wrong. When i see really good graffiti, I wonder the artist is not attending art school somewhere 😉
Another super-poem.:)
Thank you 🙂
Oh, wow. You have it all here – the wonder, the wish to interpret and the wish to create.
Loved it!
Thank you 🙂
This is fantastic and I am with Dajena…it really does remind me of early graffiti, like cave paintings…in time all graffiti crumbles..
Yes it does though in my fantasy world magic helps that along
yes, and what a wonderful world it is 🙂
Thank you 🙂 Glad I am not the only one who thinks so
😀 😀 you are welcome!
🙂
🙂
Looking at grafitti as simply lines makes me really think. Is there more to their message than the words that often are prominent? Very good interpretation of the prompt and thanks for tagging me as it helps me to sort through all the possibilities during this course! 🙂
Thank you 🙂 oh you’re welcome. I’ve been tagged a few times and it helped me so I thought I’d return the favor. Sometimes I can’t read the graffiti because the letters are so embellished. At those times I can only look at the lines and wonder at the meaning.
Me too. I try to respond on an emotional level.
I thank you for that and I try to do the same
I’m sure!
Love the way you looked at this. Interesting interpretation with words that draw us into the scene.
Thank you 🙂
Beautiful interpretation
Thank you 🙂
😀
It reminds me of the early hieroglyphs found on cave walls. They could be pronounced as the first graffiti, expanding on all the great adventure! 🙂
Thank you 🙂 since Sarn is illiterate he would see only the lines but he might not realize that he’s looking at words unless he had his brother with him. His brother is literate and could read the writing to him. He won’t ask anyone else though because he’s ashamed that he can’t read
Another question: Does reading graffiti automatically mark the reader as one who has no adventures of her/his own?
I loved your poem, despite the question I had!
In the boy’s opinion yes because the readers are standing there instead of going out and having adventures. (Mind you that he’s only 4 so his opinion is skewed). I don’t agree with him.
🙂
That was a profound and vividly described scene, Melinda. The idea of an illiterate man and his son not being interested in written words, and just being interested in their own adventures, and find their own destiny is beautifully rendered. My question is: Does one NEED to be literate to enjoy good graffiti?
I don’t think so. I’ve seen a lot of graffiti that was embellished that I couldn’t read what was written. I could just enjoy the aesthetic aspect