Izzy
Mum won’t stop
crying.
She has so many tears that I imagine
the kitchen
flooding
and me having to row across to the kettle
in a rubber dinghy,
just to make her
a cup of tea.
Mum won’t stop
talking.
So many words that they fill the air,
skirmishing and jostling and clogging up
my head.
Angry is a strong word.
He elbows his way to the
‘How could she do this to me?’
‘What have I done to deserve this?’
‘What was she thinking?’
Angry likes to ask a lot of
questions,
but isn’t really interested in the
answers.
Sometimes
Guilty
sneaks
her
way
in.
Guilty is sly and she doesn’t come
alone.
Sometimes she brings
Sad
with her.
Sometimes Confused likes to join
the party.
And Guilty has a twin sister.
Her name is
Memories.
‘If only I hadn’t behaved that way.’
‘Do you remember the day I said that?’
‘I should have been better.’
‘It’s all my fault.’
Guilty turns happy memories into
nightmares.
She rewrites the story so that times you
thought were
good times
suddenly have their skin peeled back and a
rotten core
stares back at you.
I
hate
Guilty
most of all.