A Literary Journal For
Aspring Young Writers

just a phase

/
Tearing out grass,
laying down,
uncaring for stamped stains,
diseased blood lit gold,
    clouds braiding hearts and alive
mothers, so i take a chance and whisper
    to mine Mum i’m sixteen today
cremated bones rouse in hope,
ravens cackle but,

Mum’s still asleep.

Kicking webbed tombs,
disturbing the dead with hate,
i leave

Ecstasy dilating pupils,
hazy groping in
crowded rooms with drugged
ambitions, burnt fingers on rolled joints;
to fit in, throats exposed,
veins too young,
drowning in amber liquor,
slashed in duel bags to pour down,
splayed limbs and paralysed
opinions, i am one of them,
popular
        congrats.

/
too fat, too fat, too fat
beneath ribbed cages,

swollen fingers clawing inside,
ripping fistfuls of fatty organs
emptying out,
        i convulse,
my spine melding
        one with the rim of cold porcelain,
knees numb,
crouched in mercy
        heaved dry
finally pretty
/
a teacher once told me i’m bright, that night
i dismembered the running grooves of the
heavy thing inside my head,
combusted the papers marked red
100's with singed edges
in the waste

a teacher now tells me i’m a mess,
finally i smile
    thank you
/
i walk the edge,
    spreading wide my skinny arms,
relishing one last hit,
before flying
    this was us.