HANNAH HODGSON – THREE POEMS

Equals

I feel you over my shoulder
and I try to remind you that this ring
is not a magnet towards pots and pans.
This ring does not sew a cleaning cloth
to my hand.
This ring does not mean I can’t
understand maths.
This ring is not a band of ownership,
like a receipt at the checkout.
This ring means that we are
equals, and both have the world
in our grasp.

 

Dear Body

I’d be handing you
a redundancy notice
if the end of you
didn’t mean
the end of me.

My brain is filled
with corrupted code –
error alarms
screeching
in my organs.

I never learned
how to calm the heart
how to stop it battering
my chest, acting out
like a child.

I never learned
the nursery rhyme
to quieten it down.
I need to learn how
to parent these organs.

Go home,
look over the job description
for a body.
Read it over –
let’s start again tomorrow.

 

Invisible

Watch Rapunzel
as she can’t get to the top of the tower
because there is no lift.

Or Cinderella,
who can’t get to the ball
because there are no accessible pumpkins available.

Watch Jack
as he learns to live with a brain injury
after he tumbles down the hill with his water;

Or Goldilocks
as she can’t find
an accessible bedroom.

Watch the princess
as she gets bed sores
from the pea in her bed.

Watch Snow White
as she recovers
from her coma.

Watch Aladdin
surrender his magic carpet license
because he’s having seizures.

So many stories
ignored because
they are not beautiful.

 

Hannah is a Poet and YouTube blogger from Kendal.

Dear Body is published in Hannah’s pamphlet available from Wayleave Press.