graffiti -> kids

my answer to graffiti is
have kids.

so you're concerned;
something inside you pecks at
the transience of your brief time here:
in this school, in this tunnel,
in this freaking world.

so you want
to feel safe in knowing
that your name will be remembered,
that your memory will linger on 
-- such strange common thoughts
in the soul of a party-lifed teen --
wanna feel comfortably legacied,
not for nothing have you suffered your existence.

so you take your name,
carve it,
dip it,
paint it,
scratch it,
they won't forget, no, you won't pass on
pass by into blankness,
into unexistence, no;
your name will outlast your presence.

my answer to graffiti is
have kids

have a kid who'll
know you, who'll experience you,
who'll learn to know your name,
who'll be planted with some of your very soul,
who'll live on with it long
after you move on out,
long
after you pass on by,
long after they paint over your
carved, sprayed, etched name
with a new coating of
plastic for the new kids who'll
never read it, never see it, never know
who you were.

become a real-life legend,
not a label of a name, connection forgotten,
context overwritten,
faded into the dusty oblivion
of time and time and passing time.

be brave, and live life,
beyond a brief etching.
become the legend
you want remembered,
and pass on your awesomeness
to generations to come.

my answer to graffiti is
have kids

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Image adapted from here.