2018 back-to-school contest: 'A fresh start' by Ady Lam
We asked our readers to write a poem or a piece of creative writing about "a fresh start" for their chance to win an amazing back-to-school haul. Here is one of the entries, which has not been edited
every day
since i was four
i’d go and play
at the candy man’s store
twizzlers, reese’s pieces
skittles, m&ms
hershey’s bars,
my favourites by far
then when i was nine
a foreign man was behind
the counter - he looked fine
but
he wasn’t
my momma had always told me
stay away from strangers
if they talk to you run back quickly
but he was the candy man’s bestie
it wasn’t like i was in danger
well, about that
i
kicked and screamed and shouted and yelled and
cried and wailed and flailed and shrieked and
howled and yowled and bawled and yawled but
no use
there i stayed, in the back of his dingy old
van - sad mad resentful? i don’t know man
i missed momma and poppa back home i missed
my dog that would run up to me whenever
i came back from school and i missed
everything
everything
then one day, finally
one glorious day
one beautiful day
one marvellous day
after all the horrible days of eating rotten fish
after all the terrible days of drinking stale water
after all the abhorrent days of, of there
they came
in all their glory
to whisk me away
and he was whisked away too
differently of course
i saw my momma and poppa and my doggie again
my classmates my teachers my aunties and uncles
and it was just in time
for it was soon my new year
at a new school
it was
the
end
and i’d never been happier