Let Every Little Thing Make You Happy, page 64
First published in the UK in 2025
This electronic edition first published in 2025 by Black & White Publishing
An imprint of Bonnier Books UK
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Copyright © Peach Martine 2025
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Contents
VIRAL
Poem to Myself Five Years Ago
My Dream Boy
Scared of Getting Older
Truth or Dare
Goals
Sleepy People
Before You Ask
Talking Stage
Tyrese
Prom Date
Best Friend
Home
Female Lead
Glass
Woman
Is It Pink?
LOVE
Love Song
Oh Yeah, I Bet We’ll Work
Favourite Body
I’ll Be Your Best Friend
Anyways
Heaven
He’s Not the Guy
Avoid Love Until You’re Sure You’re Ready
Candids
Long Distance
Are Guys Psychopaths or What the Fuck
Learning Spanish
She Has a Tendency Towards Existentiality
Age Gap
Another You
It Just Won’t Work, Will It?
A Lover Who Loves Self Sabotage More
Reflection
Would You Be Mine
It’s Not One or the Other
Under Your Eyelashes
I Wish I’d Kept Your Hoodie
South Beach Is Contaminated
Christmas Present
I Am in His Kitchen This Morning
We Never Wound up Saying It but It Was So Fun to Feel Like This That the Heartbreak Was So Worth It
LONELINESS
Crab Rangoons
I’m All Felt Out
Melancholy Joyride
Begin Again
My Girl
Writer’s Block
A Song I Can’t Write
Doppler Radar
Fake
Stuck Between the Lines
Death and How I Know Her
Gasoline Eyes
Alien Song
Holes
Mineral Badlands
Barstool Confessional
My Boy Is Ruined
Bechdel Test
Shame Followed by the Shame of Loving
No Need to Say Goodbye
My Worst Nightmare
Self Help
Be My Own Friend
Birthday Song
Overthinking
Growing Pains
You’re Not Special
Outgrowntown
TRUE LOVE
We Eat French Fries, the Fruit on the Rims of Our Cocktails, and Men
My Brother Gives Great Gifts
Our Hair
Mom
Friendship, Carnations, Oranges: We Are Gentle and Alive
A Conversation
A Hypothetical Funeral
ANGER
A Silly Girl’s Guide to Fucking With the Patriarchy
Margaret, the Permanent Keyholes, Bloodstained Lingerie, and an Attempt to Ask the Man Inside My Head His Name
Fuck Blue Lives Matter
And Fuck All Lives Matter
Watered Down
Girlhood
Men Who Made God
Daily Bursts of Fear
I’m Lucky I’m Pretty
I Wanted the World to Need Me
Father’s Day
To Think You’re Fine and Be Told You Look Sad
Danger Is Everywhere if You Squint
HOPE
Things I Can Do to Be
Skin
What Are You Looking Forward To?
Have the Best Day You Can
A Situation Evolving
To Thieve
Being Religious
From Hour to Hour
I’ve Been Waiting for You
Manifest
Still, I Want More
Resting in Peace
Hope Comes Naturally
Let Every Little Thing Make You Happy
Lullaby
About the Author
Acknowledgements
These touched people, some like a fire and some like a finger.
one
VIRAL
Feel like
joining me?
Use the chords at the top of each poem to play along on your favourite instrument and tag me in your version!
@peachmartine
F, Am, C, G
Poem to Myself Five Years Ago
Hey thirteen-year-old Peach
it’s eighteen-year-old you
I just thought I’d stop to tell you
about the things you’ll do
you move to Miami
two blocks from the beach
you forget your real name
because everyone calls you Peach
you break your nose again
can never really breathe right
your mental health gets a lot worse
but you put up a really good fight
your family falls apart
but you see both your siblings’ wedding days
you never see your dad again
I promise it’s better that way
you finally get your license
to drive all your new friends around
you learn the city in a CRV
that really likes to break down
you date a couple boys
break a couple dozen hearts
then someone breaks yours,
and it hurts
but things are how they are
you write a bunch more music
you start to get pretty good
people start to believe in you
like you always hoped they would
you graduate a full year early
at the top of your class
your friends become your family
without you ever having to ask
you spend a lot of time happy
but you have some awful days
you’re safe now
and somehow
everything turned out okay
Write a letter
to yourself
in five years.
G, Bm, F#m, G
My Dream Boy
I want a boy with bright eyes and big shoulders
who always thanks the waiter after he orders
who knows what he wants but he isn’t too forward
who gives me his hoodie when the night gets colder
I want a boy who won’t take me for granted
a good sense of humour a little sarcastic
no flowers or chocolate we skip the romantics
no pressure on us like what happens will happen
Really want somebody I can be chill with
keeps himself busy but has time to kill with me
really want people to be like ‘you’re still with him?’
yeah, uh huh, cause things are still perfect
My dream boy loves nights out with the guys
6’2 to 6’5 always looks me in my eyes
speaks his mind and doesn’t try to tell me lies
and every time I see him I’ll still get butterflies
Calls me sweet nicknames like sunshine or baby
confronts me if something I do makes him angry
tells me his feelings but is not a crybaby
and isn’t controlling but cares for my safety
Unafraid to say he appreciates me
he loves to work hard but don’t need a Mercedes
I hope I can find him before I turn eighty
so I can say ‘hey, I love you too’ daily
C, Gm, Bb, Dm
Scared of Getting Older
Is anybody else a little scared of getting older?
because the worlds not getting safer
and the seas aren’t getting colder
holidays aren’t as exciting
games are easier to lose
your mom doesn’t drive you around
you start to watch the news
instead of Blue’s Clues and Power Rangers
animals get more endangered
being a girl gets more dangerous
and adults can’t explain to us
why everything matters a little less
everything starts to cause you stress
like bills and work and school and rent
so you wake up and wonder
where all the time went
when you were seventeen
life was evergreen
you made memories
and had seven seas to explore
Can we still do that anymore?
Can we live in a way that matters
yet keeps us from getting bored?
Can we learn to find happiness
when the world rests on our shoulders?
Is anybody else a little
scared of getting older?
G, Em, C, Eb
Truth or Dare
We were all completely sober
when like 10 of us came over
to your place around 11 PM
We all sat in a circle
and were talking crap like normal
when someone said that we should play a game
So someone asked you truth or dare
who’s the prettiest girl here
and you sighed
looked at me
And said my name
Do you even know how much you play with my emotions?
Did you notice how you took my breath away?
I’ve never seen you look so scared
when your friend with the curly hair
dared you to kiss me just one time
So you came over
I pressed my lips together
but I couldn’t help myself but to close my eyes
I thought that they were lying
when they said that there’ll be fireworks
when you kiss a soulmate for the first time
but you couldn’t have noticed
because I didn’t return your kiss
and I regret it because I missed my shot with you
big time
Did you notice how you
took my breath away?
G, B, Em, C (higher octave)
Goals
I don’t wanna live a boring life
I don’t want to be on my phone all the damn time
I want to be the one that got away and
I wanna be the one that gives advice
I wanna write someone’s favourite song
find somewhere I feel like I belong
I want to make all the right friends
and keep them with me for my whole life long
I want to go on spontaneous adventures
I want to watch the world come up with new inventions
I want to travel around the world like a pirate but
I want to find love beyond treasure
I know my personal goals are a little different
Cause in marriage and kids I have no interest
I want to be a role model and a friend,
a poet a performer and an activist
I know I’ve got some pretty big goals
I want a Grammy like an Olympian wants gold
I want a world tour so I can meet my future fans
and someone to come with me all around the world
Write down one
of your biggest
dreams – it can
be anything.
Starts on G
Sleepy People
Husband and wife were married underneath the steeple
of the church in the town they were born
On the way home from the American cathedral
the wife tore her wedding gown on a thorn
Husband bent down, for he had brought a thread and needle
for exactly this purpose I’m sure
He showed he could sew, the wife then knocked a little beetle
off the suit he had only once worn
They were sleepy people
for the rest of their lives
When they think of this time
oh they laugh
then they cry
and I kinda know why
Husband went on to get a good job as a banker
in a cubicle from 9-5
Dreamed of the day he’d be moved to the corner office
where he could work in a room with sunlight
Five years along, their son was born with ten good fingers
he grew up watching his parents survive
Boy didn’t belong, but he decided just to linger
to observe his parents staying alive
He watched the sleepy people
waste the rest of their lives
thinking only of the memories
on which they rely
To bring them any delight
And the boy was forty-five before he realized
That he’s just waiting to die
F, G, Am, Dm
Before You Ask
Before you ask a girl for pictures,
do you ask her middle name?
Do you actually care for her,
or is it just a game?
Before you ask a girl for pictures,
ask who she looks up to.
Ask about her family, ask her if she loves you.
Do you question what she wants from you?
If she sees you two together?
Or do you hope that you can guilt her into giving into pressure?
Do you know her birthday?
Her favourite colour?
Her favourite song?
When you beg this girl for pictures,
do you ever feel it’s wrong?
Dm, F, Am, G
Talking Stage
I want to know how you take your coffee
Do you prefer summer rain, or when the air turns frosty?
If you had to take your pick, is it vanilla or chocolate?
I want to know how to cheer you up when life gets rocky
What’s your favourite movie?
Can we watch it together?
What do you like about your life?
How can I make it better?
I want to know what you value and who you care about
like five-star hotel or would you rather camp out?
Would you rather learn to surf or ski?
Lemonade or iced tea?
Would you rather live a normal life
or would you like to be a celebrity?
A day at the pool or a day at the beach?
Favourite childhood memory?
But what I really want to know is could you ever see yourself with me?
Journal your answers, or memorise your questions to ask on good dates.
Am, G, F, C
Tyrese
I used to have a friend
in Cleveland at summer camp,
and I would sing Michael Jackson
and he would back up dance
I was the only white kid
he made me feel loved,
he made me feel welcome
he gave the best hugs
But he was gay, and he was black,
one winter day I got an email
that he wasn’t coming back
and he never came back
It said he was the target of a lot of hate
and it became too much for him to take
And I was like eleven so I didn’t realize
that I would never get to say goodbye
And I was probably so insignificant in his life
but not a day goes by
that he doesn’t cross my mind
Because he made my summers so much better
he was a great kid and an even better dancer
If people had said kinder things
we wouldn’t have to say Rest In Peace
Just in case you’re somehow listening
we miss you and we love you Tyrese
Am, C, Em, G
Prom Date
Hey it’s me, your prom date
the one in the red
with the crown on her head
that you said you could never hate.
It’s been around six months since we last talked
