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First Story

England's leading creative writing charity for young people

  • Bookshop
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    • Young Writers Programme
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    • Summer residential
    • Folio Mentorships
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  • Locations
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‘Did You Know?’
by Barirah Ashfak

Feversham College, Bradford, 2016

Did you know
that if you reached far enough into the sky,
your fingertips would scrape the seabeds,
and if you reached far enough into the seabeds,
you could touch the clouds with sand in your nails?
We could run to the edge of the universe
and be back in time for tea.
Blue looks like red if you try hard enough
and here we are, swimming in the purple.

Our dreams are made of bubblegum,
splattered all over mouths
and we are not even trying to pull it off –
we are waking up with scraped knees,
playing with fire to keep warm. Look at us!
Dancing in our ones and zeros till the clock strikes nought,
making the most of this 32-bit life.

If time goes on for long enough,
it will reach the big bang.
If we survive, we will be fairy tales.
The whole world will be Atlantis,
we will all run back for our glass slippers
and the stories will echo through the walls of infinity.
Hold my hand, we will ignore anyone who tells us to walk
in the hallways and we will run off the edge of the earth.

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020 7481 7777

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