The Days of Ziad Hafiz Razak

Five years in and I learnt all the bad words
The terms of endearment smeared with vulgarity 
The hollerings of young impudent boys at ease with the barbarity 
Of curses and cuss words

Take me not back to those years of 
Savage putdowns and uncertain jocularity 
Of ravaged hearts and ruinous hilarity
The cruel currency of teenage boys

Instead, let me meditate on the noise and din
Of classrooms and the boys and girls within
The drama of pining hearts, the original sin 
Of birds and bees playing their own parts
To perfection

We laughed in artful jest and mannered scorn
To mask our youthful hurts and hearts forlorn.