reads

                                jest

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All night Tippi and I lie with our arms
wrapped around each other
like rope.
I bury my face in her neck
and she wakes every now and then
to kiss the top of my head

  Nicholas, I’ve warned you

about not paying attention

in my class.

This is your final warning.

Your mother made me

write this

just in case, she said,

which kinda freaked me out,

so I said to her,

Da Man is fine, babe.

on the pitch, lightning faSt,

dribble, fake, then make a dash

player tries tO steal the ball 

lift and step and make him fall

The building is white,
ivy eating its way up the broken walls,
windows small
and scratched.

The walls of the room are white and clean -
all sign's of yesterdays sorrows scrubbed
away with bleach.

She is not here.
Not beside me in bed
nor in the room
at all.

It has happened

and drank soda

and didn’t eat lunch

and I almost got arrested

and I hate math

and tomorrow we have to play basketball in gym class

and I’m not that good

Oh to be in Magherabeg

Where I was adult free

From sun up til head down,

Stomping through streams in worn out wellies,

Chasing rams down to the Swilly.