I can shed my face
The way a snake can shed its skin
Layers upon layers upon layers
So many masks even I don’t know where to begin
For now it’s just a habit
After years and years and years
To wear so many masks
That no one will ever see my tears
But I wasn’t always this way
It was just something I learnt to do
The way riding a bicycle
Is just something you’re taught to do
Yet I had no teacher
I was completely self-taught
So I had no one to teach me
When to wear a mask and when not
So I made one for every minute
Of my unimportant life
Until I could move between them
Smoother than any knife
And if you cut my body in two
You’d find I have no centre
In its place instead, you’d find
A thousand dysfunctional placentae
Hundreds and hundreds of fleshy casings
Each one with its own baby thought
That I kept so deep under my layers
For fear of getting caught
First (juniors)
Poppy Magdalena Hayward
Year 10, Logan Park High School