Found poem

This poem, observed in a back alley in Northampton, speaks for the youth of today in so many ways.  Put simply it says that existence is poo. Hardly an original idea but rarely expressed so succinctly. Two short words that plumb the depths of angst, weltschmerz and several other concepts that only the Germans have words for.
 
Admire its physical construction. Each letter has been scratched several times, perhaps suggesting the futility of repetitive manual labour. Or, in its excoriations of  the bricks’ outer layer, is there a  warning of a propensity to self harm?
 
The font used is a stark one with no curves and no serrifs.  It may have been invented in situ , just like a jazz riff , but surely the echoes of Plinlimmon Sans can not be down to pure chance? I detect some formal training in the graphic arts.
 
Then there is the careful change in the kerning so that SHIT is contained within the boundaries of one brick. Some people will think that this signifies the imprisonment of the human psyche – a metaphysical “constipation” if you will. Personally I see it as  a subliminal homosexual fear of being released from the closet.
 
And note how the whole piece is left-justified. Surely a barely-concealed but heart-felt plea for a society based on justice and equality.
 
Then there is the wall itself, the poet’s canvas if you like. For me the blank red bricks speak so eloquently of an empty anomie while the mortar lines form a bewildering maze of possibilities and dead-ends.
 
Yet despite the obvious nihilistic message there is an undercurrent of hope for the future. For me it is to be found in the slightly larger space between the E and the S that is bisected by a barely discernible ghostly downward scratch . Yes it is the merest hint of an apostrophe that says that grammar and its big brother culture WILL survive! Others will find hope in the sheer ambiguity of that spectral apostrophe. Could it be possessive? Not “Life is shit” but Life OWNS the shit! It is not MY shit, it belongs to life! I can get my own shit together!
 

So although in one sense this terse anonymous statement says very little, in another it says everything. I know that from now on I personally will be scanning all brickwork in the hope that this latter day Ginsberg will feel inspired to add to his or her impressive debut oeuvre.