The unbearable itch of chicken pox. The annoyance of sharing a Spotify account with your parents. The delight of smearing tomato sauce over everything you eat.

 

The bright rainbow lights of the roller derby. The glorious sticky sweetness of fairy floss. The rebellion of the fake tattoo you know your nan will hate. The satisfaction of turning your childhood Barbie into a punk-novelist.

 

The shock of accidentally smashing a neighbour's window with a cricket ball. The shame of cheating on a test. The feeling of wearing your afro high and proud. The anxiety of reading text messages before school. The joy in Mum's solo standing ovation on concert night. The blowfly in the school toilets that none of the boys can catch ...

  

Maxine Beneba Clarke is back with 99 new poems for young people, following on from her multi-award-winning collection, It's the Sound of the Thing. In sonnets, pantoums, narrative verse, free verse, blackout poems, tongue-twisters, limericks, found poems, concrete poems, rhyming couplets, haiku and more, Stuff I'm (Not) Sorry For makes magic from the ordinary.