I have been asleep, what can I say? I missed a few years, gliding in and out of old nightmares, not always night dreams. Sometimes I’d daydream my way through months before the screams would force me back into the darkness. Sleeping was better than being awake and watching the reactions to my twitching (how horrible to witness yourself in a nightmare). I hadn’t noticed it was twenty years since I had had a thought, a real thought that breathed in the air. Sleep thoughts seemed so convincing (I do dream in colour, don’t you?) and the thought woke me and I realised I was naked (I always sleep naked, don’t you? Well you don’t have to say, you weren’t on display whilst sleeping) and a fig leaf won’t do, not after all these years, a fig leaf doesn’t even begin to cover it. About the author:
Hannah Linden has struggled with depression and anxiety most of her life. She’s a survivor of multiple traumas, including the suicide of her father when she was a child. Her poetry explores many kinds of impact from mental health challenges and she is particularly interested in the way trauma, and the experience of marginalisation, is explored in folklore and fairy tale, in both negative and positive ways. She has a Northern working-class background but, for many years, has lived in ramshackle social housing in Devon. She is widely published and, most recently, won the Cafe Writers Poetry Competition 2021, and was Highly Commended in the Wales Poetry Award 2021. Her debut pamphlet, The Beautiful Open Sky, (V. Press) was shortlisted for the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet 2023. X: @hannahl1n
1 Comment
Catrin Mari
6/9/2024 08:09:56 pm
I love how the broken lines reflect broken sleep. Really interesting read.
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