Chapstick
The dark wings of night enfolded a body which nature
Had spread with a pure white garment of light.
It was this light,
Found in this darkness,
That saved her.
Just how the star-light, brings about the star-bright,
In the darkness of night,
And just how this star light is always present,
But only illuminated by the darkness of night,
So is she.
And, just how this star-light brought about star-crossed lovers,
She found herself unbound as if a Montague in a world full of Capulets.
Her future is palpable,
She can almost barely taste it
On her lips
Just like the chapstick she applied every fifteen minutes.
In this moment, when the sky lost its colour
The stars, oh the stars, how they shone,
She pressed her face up to the window to try and touch them,
Frustrated when her chapped lips felt rough against the texture of the glass.
So she reached into her gown pocket, struggled to find the small skinny tube.
Afterwards licking them,
Smiling,
Because she can taste the future, she can taste herself, again.
It should be her temple, she was told.
An accommodation of admiration, a station to not be sold.
To not be cold, but bold.
To maintain and mould, not as she pleases, but as she's told.
Decay, deterioration and decay freed her from this hold.
Her body - still a temple,
It's remains exhibited whilst wrapped in her gown.
Chapped lips, capture her temples authenticity, to fulfil her gawpers sympathy.
Her chapstick sends these walls tumbling down,
Tossing the bricks of empathy onto the
Whittled gown to her right.
She is a symbolic reminiscence of birth,
A reminder of how death strips off everything,
How darkness hides her red raw pout, and through this
She accepts,
And as she does,
She lives
The star-light, may withhold the light, but without, she remains bright.
Nightfall negotiates, navigates and neglects such a sore sight.
Yet, she accepts,
And as she does,
She illuminates
About the author: Stacey Pattinson is a nineteen year old, third-year English Literature student at Oxford Brookes university. She often writes poems and short stories focusing on women, freedom and acceptance.
