Poets and Bathroom Walls

But seriously, have you seen a "bathroom poem"?

I’ve probably seen and heard at most a quarter of all the irrelevant things in the world, at least that’s what I think because that is what most people think. The thing is, the littlest of things like a crack on the sidewalk or a penny on a messy floor or a wisdom-filled poem on a bathroom wall are most likely regarded as irrelevant and are ignored and commented by people with a “who gives a crap?”, literally. But I’ve seen more insignificant things that’s for sure.

But seriously, have you seen a “bathroom poem”? Like the ones you see in the smelly loos in schools besides the implicit drawings of the male genitalia. Compared to the internet, it’s like the downgraded version of it where you could post almost anything anonymously or not with just a pen or a marker. Let’s just take these as examples: 

They aren’t your average, ordinary poems that’s for sure. I’ve had my fair share of poems on these walls and I could say, it takes more than a pen to write something so unexpectedly beautiful. Most of them were written on my elementary years, somewhere in the 6th grade, where I only come to the bathroom to vandalize the doors and walls. Here is one:

On the days I sit still  

With the darkness that surrounds the bottom 

I stay still till I find the relief 

Till I find the weight off my shoulders

I think you'll get the point there

The reasons why people actually do this are quite simple.

Some say to gain attention but most of them are anonymously written unless you write down your name of course. Some people also say to spread humor or just to give a little laugh, I mean if you haven't noticed, most people cry in loos besides the bedroom and these bathroom poets, although unknown, are more likely to make people laugh without even knowing it. Other people also say that it is something they just do. For all I care, I only have a single reason - to feel. Not for me to feel but for others. The thought that people would actually waste their time to read walls is surprising, but for them to realize something upon it or just making them feel an emotion because of it is pretty much something else. I'm not encouraging anyone to write on bathroom walls whenever they see one but to express something so deep that people would actually feel it. I know that we basically have the internet now so there's no need for walls, but I think that it is just a classic way that people don't understood.


But they are absolutely something else. Written with humor, sadness, despair, motivation or simply about the toilet they sit on, it’s surprising how people who probably has never heard of the social media or just likes vandalizing could make something quite similar to art, something that isn’t supposed to be deemed as nice but regarded as something that would make you feel…..something.