Micrograffiti: Me by Stephanie Czarnota

Me by Stephanie Czarnota

Three different teachers, three times in the ninth grade. They make you write an essay about your hero after you read that long ass poem, which doesn’t even rhyme, about the guy who goes on a long trip.

I’m not here because I love the story, that’s for sure.

Last year I called Odysseus a punk ass. Set a trashcan on fire in math.  Algebra.  Matches.  Principal called me destructive and sent me on a long trip, but nobody called me a hero.

Not tall, but I tower over the rest of the ninth grade.  Everybody scratches away at paper with a pencil, like it will make a difference. Like they matter.

The teacher stares.  I don’t know her name.  She doesn’t know mine. I think about that one-eyed monster eating the dude’s men.  I think about how weak that punk ass was while the ladies sang their song.  I wouldn’t have caved.  Weak ass shit.

I don’t carry a pen and I don’t have any paper.  On the floor next to my desk, somebody left crumpled homework and half a crayon.  Plenty of room on the back for me to write: Hero.  Me.

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Stephanie Czarnota’s heroes are high school students.

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Micrograffiti is a project edited by Stacey Swann. The writers were asked to respond with fiction to Ben Walters’ photographs of the South London graffiti tunnel. Click here to read more >>