On my first day in a new school, thirteen-year-old me scribbled the poem below on the cover of a notebook. The kid next to me asked about it. I said something about writing poems and he snapped loudly 'You didn't fuckin' write that!', a sentiment agreed by the other adjacent kids, none of whom knew me, but who were all now convinced I was a liar.

'People like us don't do things like that' was something I'd had drilled into me at home, but now I was also getting it from school. From that day I knew what the vibe was at that dump, and that learning to hide myself was the only lesson on offer.

The Lord Silkin School is now thankfully turned to rubble, my notebooks are gone, but I'm still here. So, GoodKidBitWeird is the adult me continuing and rekindling childhood me's sketches, doodles, poems, weirdness, and some of the other stuff 'people like us don't do'.

Here's the poem:

I'm in my spaceship

Flying through the air

About to hit a building

But I don't care

'Cos my spaceship has a shield

It will not destruct

Oh no, the shield's not working

Now I'm really in trouble.

NJH.

@GoodKidBitWeird on Instagram.