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Our Poems
These are our poems, the main focus of the project #letsdothisrose. These poems are all inspired by different people whose causes we want to raise awareness for. We hope these poems will inspire you to make a change in the world, just as much as the people inspired us.
My Circle
You can’t come in,
I won’t come out.
I can leave on my own terms,
My own rules.
But I don’t until I’ve got to.
Because if I leave,
I feel eyes stare.
Each and every one of them,
The monsters
Overwhelming me.
They murmur,
They laugh,
They look,
They dodge,
All because of me, at me, and from me
So I go back into my circle,
My safe place,
My sanctuary.
I sit there for days,
Cry for days
And never leave.
Till I have to.
A short poem on social anxiety
Mirror
He looked in the mirror,
Once again.
And he saw past his perfections
And noticed flaws.
His silken skin seemed
Filled with holes-
He saw all his imperfections, and
He noticed flaws.
He obsessively stared inside
The mirror-
Searching for more things to fix
And despite his beauty,
He noticed flaws.
His insecurities overwhelmed him
Every day,
Growing stronger, until one day-
He didn’t look in the mirror
Anymore.
And the truth is
Nobody helped.
Every day he became more insecure about
Unnoticeable flaws
And then someone else
Handed him light,
But he didn’t realise
That they understood him
When he didn’t even understand himself
And they dug him out of the
Hole he’d made-
And taught him to love himself
And love himself he did;
it only took one person
To teach him to look
away from his flaws.
A short poem on body dysmorphia
Wipe
She looked away from her father
Squirming in her seat.
Even if she told him-
He wouldn’t understand.
She could always sanitise it
Later.
Later, later always later
If only they knew it wouldn’t be later.
But still she wanted to scream
Every touch of his
Unwashed hands on her
Precious bed
Made her want to puke
To jump out with her
Hygienic tissues
And wipe it down
Every spot of it.
Because otherwise
She wouldn’t be able to sleep
She watched intently
Memorising where he touched it
So that she wouldn’t waste
A drop of her
Precious sanitizer.
Her precious, precious sanitizer.
It would have to be later
Again.
​
Once her father left-
She pulled her wipes out of her pocket
And she scrubbed obsessively
Tears trickling down her face
At how her father could do this to her
When he didn’t even know.
Why did it always have to be later?
She didn’t know.
Putting her hand inside the packet
She realised she had no more
And punched it hard and clenched her fists
She had sanitizer too
But was it enough?
Was it ever enough?
All the time she had spent on cleaning
Far outweighed the time she had spent on herself.
​
​
A short poem on germophobia
Light
The glittering stones smashed to the ground
I could perfectly hear the door pound.
The fearful and daunting features of a man
Standing in front.
My feet froze, my hands laid on my lap,
I could feel the bitter hard floor as I sat.
The light flashes before my eyes,
Perhaps it’s the light of hope
Or the flare of my demise.
A bony hand touches my flesh,
I woke up.
It was all just a flashback
Yet still a dream-
Because nothing is ever
Just as it seems.
I can't help it
A short poem on ADHD
I see something flash out the window.
My eyes follow it for a fleeting second.
When I turn my attention back to class,
the teacher is standing sternly in front of me.
I’ve missed half an hour of class.
I can’t help it.
I’m at a party.
Sounds and lights surround me.
It’s all too much.
I collapse on the floor, overwhelmed.
I barely register anything anyone says,
barely see their worried expressions as they help me stand.
I can’t help it.
I think about something that happened last week.
It was kind of funny,
if you think about it.
5 minutes later,
I’m lost in a spiralling tunnel of my own thoughts,
with no escape.
Someone snaps me back to reality with a frown.
I can’t help it.
People say I’m ‘overdramatic’ and ‘spacey’.
But I’m just me.
Try as I might,
I can’t help it.
​
By guest writer, Allegra
Clean Water
-Anita-
I dream of crystal clear water but still
It stays the same, murky and brown.
Once every last bit goes
Down the drain
I put the cup back on the counter.
Every day my throat is itchy, and dry and
It’s torturous, just like I thought,
Everything is just for naught
When there’s water.
But it’s too dirty to drink.
A creak of the door
matches a growl of the pipes
It slams open and
I’m thrown back by the force
Landing onto all fours
I look up to see blinding light,
Chasing away the darkness and the fright
That I know so well.
- Eleanor-
I skip through the market,
Coins in my pocket,
Up,
Down,
Up,
Down.
My shoes squeak against the tiles.
My fresh, clean, and crisp clothes
Brush against the polished aisles.
Taking a bottle of water,
I give the sticky coins to the cashier.
She’s looking at me enviously, but
Who cares? It's only water.
Once outside, I drink a quarter
“Disgusting!”
Discombobulated, I regain my composure
throwing my bottle onto the pavement.
Stomping off to find that girl.
Anita.
-both-
Both of them are there. (Pause)
Both of them resent the other
One is hateful
One is haughty
But they’re both in the dark and gloomy room.
Together.
Anita looks up,
Her face thin and frail
She places the cup of dirty water
onto the counter with a shaking hand
Defeated and silent,
Anita knows that she can’t drink it.
She eyes her enemy.
Eleanor walks around the room like she owns it,
Her face arrogant and snooty
Pulling a face of disgust at the mud,
Kicking the precious water down the drain-
“Who cares? It’s only water.”
The girl flounces out of the dim room.
Anita wipes her hands on her filthy rags,
runs into the polluted street.
She walks towards home
On the way she spots something shining in the afternoon sun.
Metal?
Glass?
Diamonds?
“Better.”
On the ground in front of her lies a bottle of crystal clear water.
Away
A short poem on relationship attachment disorder
She stared into the sky
Looked at the clouds.
She used to be able to visualise beauty
But all she saw now were clouds trotting across the sky
Away,
Away.
Away from her.
Away, just like everyone else.
Everything else in her life,
Trotting away.
Everyone else, just like away.
But she didn’t like away.
Away, away
Until she was alone.
Three times.
Three times she had been betrayed.
Betrayed three times, she’d been.
The first was a tragedy, a death of family
That one time when she wasn’t with him
The world had betrayed her.
The second was a disappearance.
Her parents, lost in their own petty lives,
Their bourgeoisie businesses,
Let her dog wander
Out into the road
To be crushed. Like her trust.
The last time she was betrayed
She had been careful. Perhaps too careful.
Careful had become her
She never let her new boyfriend go
Clinging
Until he finally left.
The world had indeed betrayed her.
Now she would betray the world.
If they wouldn’t let her cling,
What could she do? Lose hope?
Lose empathy?
She was lost.
A Penny
I stared into the darkness
Waiting
With a empty bucket of stress
Starving
Feet trotted across the street
Buzzing noises filled the air
My eyes scanned for treats
But my eyes sunk in despair
Then, In front of my eyes laid a prize
A man looked at me.
I stared at him with my pleading eyes
He looked at me with glee
Took out something shining in the light
So bright my eyes filled with hope
He held it to me as the sky turned white
He let go
Clunk.
It went in the bucket.
All I could do was stare
I couldn’t feel my chair
My eyes went fuzzy
I was looking at money
Precious money that saved my life
It was like a fantasy.
A penny was in the bucket
