I. James: ‘A Furless Bear’

I want a shower head over my bed

to drench me and make my duvet as wet

as my pillows become,

when I succumb

to my pitch-black mind

and attack myself from behind

closed lids- closed doors-

clothes off, I sleep naked

ready to bare my all to dreams, but jaded

as I am, I am a furless bear

hibernating in a long retreat with my languish

under sheets of anguish

and I am scared.

I am afraid of a hunter

dressed up as a friend and my mother,

who will skin me alive

and show me that life

is as tough as the meat on my bones,

but, I must try and not ever be overthrown. 

I. James

Isabelle is a 24-year-old PGCE English student at the University of Cambridge. Her Poetry has been shortlisted for the South Yorkshire Young Writers’ Competition 2018.