Seeing some street artists working on a giant commissioned mural near my house, I asked whether they could include a message to a girl I was keen on.

By chance, they were including many phrases related to the theme of love and light, so they were happy to accommodate me.

Despite relations breaking down in the interim with the girl, I persisted with the folly, and over the space of two days, formulated a succinct, witty phrase, highly personalised, that I thought captured her essence.

The phrase said “ephemeral street art, an eternal sweetheart”, which in hindsight might not have been my best gambit.

Partly for the following reason: perhaps due to a language breakdown, and despite only being six words long, half the sentence got left off the wall. If it wasn’t romantic in the first place, it certainly wasn’t comprehensible in the second.

Probably for the better, a thick red line masks half of the person it is dedicated to.

Since it purely by coincidence marks the spot I’d unsuccessfully lunged at her two weeks earlier, I think it’s best if I pick different locations for my romantic gestures.

Or just different girls.