Shielding by Holly Bars

A large tree in the middle of green woodland. Large white text reads: Shielding. Smaller text reads: Discussing disabled characters in fairy tales and folklore.

And if you’d have waited,
just another six months,
I know where we’d be.
 
On that boat in Ullswater,
eating gingerbread in Grasmere,
if you’d have waited.
 
Wandering through doors of Wordsworth,
building daisy chains in the graveyard,
that’s where we’d be.
 
Treading the paths of Ambleside,
camping in an undersized tent,
if you’d have waited.
 
Then, your house,
to your bed, each other’s arms,
is where we’d be.
 
And we’d be having the sex,
all you couldn’t wait for.
If you’d have waited,
that’s where we’d be.

About the author:
Holly Bars is a Leeds poet, currently studying MA Creative Writing at the University of Leeds. She has been published in The Moth, Stand, The London Magazine, Ink, Sweat & Tears, and more. Her debut collection, "Dirty", centred on surviving child sexual abuse, is published with Yaffle Press. 

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