Event

28th September, Witham Library, Poetry Reading

Bio
Laura May’s first collection, ‘The Shallows’, was released in 2010, and her next collection, ‘Vital’, will be out in 2011. Laura explores her personal experiences of living with a mental health condition through her writing, as well as other issues close to her heart. Laura also writes a daily blog.

www.lauramay.org
www.lauramaywritten.blogspot.com

Poem

Brittle

I wish I could tell you I was different then,
that I was happy, content, just a child,
but even in early budding years
I knew something was brittle.

I wish I could tell you it's because of divorce,
or a trauma, a scene, a fight in between,
but even in the first dawns of my days
it was nothing but my mind.

I wish I could tell you, blame it on the parents,
put it down to that event, let it soak in the past,
but there is no reason behind me
I just am this way, I am brittle,

I was brittle before my first tooth,
before my first gaping hole nightmare,
before the first, small innocent cuts of youth,
I was brittle even in the womb.

I tried to soften my mind, with fairy liquids and
powdered promises, dusty stained hopes,
But it was brittle before life threw itself at me,
so I am liable to fracture when submitted to stress.