193 clouds

When clouds gather in my sky, and shadows paint monsters on my bedroom wall, I cower.

Until I trap myself in a corner.

And in my self-mutilation, the fragile shreds of domesticity are ripped from my soul.

I set aside the ethos and praxis carved in my mind

and deal with one undeniable imperative:

I choose to survive.

And the clarity that decision brings strips away

all the handicaps

I have adopted, to play small, so that I fit in.

Kim Magennis 2016