American Graffiti: You’re downtown, and see graffiti in an unlikely place — graffiti like you’ve never seen before, concerning someone you know.
Growing up in the city, you see a lot of graffiti.
Everything, from spray painted walls to Sharpie on the bathroom stalls. There’s so much graffiti that it will apparently make you rhyme while explaining it. Much like accidental poetry, you get used to it after a while. People tagging their names, defiling other people’s names, letting their opinions be heard, one misdemeanor at a time. It becomes part and parcel of the environment.
Yesterday, as I walked through the downtown area, i saw one of the windows completely plastered over with spray paint. It was early in the morning, but a crowd was already starting to gather around the graffiti. Curiosity got the best of me, and I wove my way through the crowd to get a better look.
“What does it say about Molly Sanchez?” I heard one person say. My ears pricked and I stood up a little straighter. Molly Sanchez and I had known each other since middle school. I strained to hear what the other person might have said in response. When I got nothing but a mumble, I went back to maneuvering around people.
There, on a storefront window, in pastels and glitter spray paint (I didn’t even know that made spray paint in glitter varieties), read in big, ballooned letters:
WE HAD OUR DIFFERENCES BUT MOLLY SANCHEZ IS A PRETTY COOL CHICK. I’LL ALWAYS TREASURE THE TIME WE HAD TOGETHER EVEN THOUGH WE BROKE UP.
“Well, it’s not the most eloquent thing I’ve read this morning,” one person noted. “But possibly the most coherent piece of graffiti I’ve ever seen.”
“Obviously you’ve never seen Banksy’s work, then,” another replied.
I was tempted to call up Molly and let her know about the weirdly positive bit of tagging done in her name, but I hadn’t had her phone number since we graduated high school. Besides, even though most graffiti goes undetected, I got the feeling that this little piece would be garnering some serious attention.
That (Not This) Abby Rose 