Inclusion is the official anthology of student poetry of the
Fermoy International Poetry Festival
The success of the 2013 edition of Inclusion brought entries from Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare and Galway. Overseas entries came from Holland, America and Canada. In addition to this Rebel Poetry included poems from first, second and third level students. The winning student, chosen by editor Gene Barry was Lucy FitzGerald from Kerry.
Confessions of a Pounding Skull
We are drowning in regrets when Sunday morning comes screaming,
Gasping for the spider's breath in the web of lies we've spun for parents.
Failing, lying, learning.
Dragged through razor wire labyrinths of angst, stumbling towards corrosive pools of ambition's expectations.
It burns your throat, mother's threats ricochet around your pounding skull.
Together, united, a community, a team, a nightmare.
Sharing trust, secrets, lies and stories.
Generation failure, the laughing stock of society.
Condemned to bullshit by bullshitters.
Hopeless, ignored, neglected.
Engulfed by the bitter clouds of pessimism and the cold winds of negativity.
The fumes stick in our throats like the tears of God-given guilt we weep at night.
Doused in petrol and set on fire on teenage disco dance-floors.
Wasters, tossers, good-for-nothing bastards, but only in their eyes.
We are the hope, the glimmer of light in the dark tunnel of yesterday’s bogs,
Striving for equality, acceptance from parents, from peers, from society.
Free from the demons of discrimination that plague their minds,
Blessed with dreams and fresh ideas, longing for incubation.
We will be the ones to find the cure to cancer and solve global warming.
A blank canvas, inspired, optimistic, ambitious.
We are the future.
So back off.
©Lucy FitzGerald