Punk Girls Don’t Live Forever

She’s a bottle rocket, shaken never stirred

Up until the sunrise, attitude undeterred

 

And if the radio don’t play her song

She won’t have to sing along

 

Nevertheless I know

I’ll never have to try

 

It’s not my song you want to sing

It’s not my words you need to know

 

Nevermind the highs and the lows

Or goodbyes and I’ll-never-knows

 

All the melodies she holds

And all the miles she has to show

 

Left unspoken, understood, in the moment never heard 

It would never change a thing inside

 

And if the words don’t come to life

Blame the poets who never tried

 

No matter how much I try

I’ll never see past those eyes

 

Maybe the words will never flow 

They always seem to come and go

 

Curse the lines I never should have wrote 

Or the ones I’ll never know

 

The key I never wanted, locked inside the heart I never stole 

Where I know I’ll never reach

 

Behind glistening gates of gold

Where the dust will never settle

 

With these answers that I seek 

And the feelings that I lack 

 

The love that never takes what it gives back

I wonder if she’ll notice these words

 

From a voice that only sings sad songs 

Nevermind these days, they won’t always be the same

 

And a week from now when I’m out of town, lost in the sounds of today

When the silence that I loved to hate won’t even show its face

 

Farewell to that love of mine

I hope she won’t mind that I didn’t stay

YUWAI BRIAN WONG is a third year student in the Professional Writing program. Recently, he worked as an archaeological field technician performing assessments all across southern Ontario. In his spare time, Yuwai practices and writes music with his friends. This poem was also recorded as a song.

This is Punk Girls Don’t Live Forever performed by Tyler Shim

Land Acknowledgement

We would like to begin by acknowledging the Indigenous Peoples of all the lands that we are on today. While we meet today on a virtual platform, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of the lands, on which we each call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and to improve our own understanding of local Indigenous peoples and their cultures. 

York University’s land acknowledgement may not represent the territory that you are currently on, and we would ask that if this is the case, you take responsibility to acknowledge the traditional territory that you are on and its current treaty holders. 

York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities. 

We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.

From coast to coast to coast, we acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territory of all the Inuit, Métis, and First Nations people that call this land home. Please join us in a moment of reflection to acknowledge the effect of residential schools and colonialism on Indigenous families and communities and to consider how it is our collective responsibility to recognize colonial and arrivant histories and present-day implications in order to honour, protect, and sustain this land. 

In recognizing that these spaces occupy colonized First Nations territories and out of respect for the rights of the Indigenous people, please look for, in your own way, to engage in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.