Poetry and Creative Writing for All

Fiona Gunn

I was born and brought up in Scotland and live in Hamilton. I am 35years old and have an 11yr old son. I sustained a rare traumatic brain injury in 1995, many of the poems I write are autobiographical and have been written during my recovery. I have had many poems published via forward press and have been a Spotlight poet twice.

Wound Healing

I CANNOT LEAVE IT ALONE,
TO HEAL,
I PICK AND PICK AND PICK,
YOUR MESH FORMING OVER MY WOUND,
AND FOR WHAT POINT?
THE NEEDLE MENDED ONCE,
THE DARNING, PATCHWORK,
MAKING DO.
FASCINATED BY YOUR CELLULAR ABILITY,
BLANKETING OVER MY HURT,
QUILTING THE HORRORS AROUND,
BREAKING MY FALL,
INTO GRACE,
A NEVERLAND WHERE PAIN IS PLUCKED
OUT.
ILLNESS DOES NOT DISGRACE,
A NONEXISTENT STATE OF TRANQUILITY LIES,
WITHIN YOUR PUSS ANTIBODIES FORM,
DESPITE MY PERNICIOUS PRODDING,
OPENING UP TO INFECTION,
MY AFFECTION FOR YOU GROWS AND GROWS AND GROWS,
UNTIL AT LAST I EAT YOU,
CONSUME YOUR NEW FORMED PROTEIN,
YUMMY CELLS,
GROSS

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Scrambled

MY NAME WAS ABOVE MY BED,
HERALDING MY STAY,
THE HIT MOVIE THAT YEAR WAS,
TIM BURTONS, " NIGHTMARE B4 XMAS"
IRONIC,
MINE HAD STARTED.

SCRAMBLED EGG BRAIN,
A RUNAWAY TRAIN UNABLE TO STOP,
I WANTED DEAD.
NIL BY MOUTH ON A MONDAY,
WAS ABOVE MY HEAD,
MY SON WAS BORN ON A MONDAY,
I DID NOT WANT DEAD,
SO I HAD WEETABIX INSTEAD
OF MORE NEEDLE PRICKS
OF DOOM.

IT WAS JUST ANOTHER WINTER`S DAY FOR SOME,
I JOKED I HAD "MAD COW DISEASE"
DEFINITELY NOT FUNNY.
THEY THOUGHT I WAS DYING

I HOPED SO AND NOT,
I DID NOT WANT TO LIVE LIKE THIS OR THAT,
I DID NOT WANT THE FUNERAL LILLIES,
MY HANDS SHOOK TOO MUCH IN TREMULOUS FRUSTRATION,
TO APPRECIATE OPENING GET WELL CARDS MESSAGES RELAYED.

THEY PUMPED BOTULINUM IN MY NECK,
SNAKE VENOMOUS FUTILE TRIES
TO STOP MY OBNOXIOUS PERMANENT BOB.
AN INSTANT CAMERA PICTURED MY HEALTHY NEW SON DAILY,
WEARING ALL THE MINT AND LEMON THINGS I`D KNITTED AND
BOUGHT,
HE IS BEAUTIFUL MUM SAID
HE MISSES YOU I KNOW,
I SMILED,
MUM LEFT,
I CRIED.
I LAUGHED.
I SCREAMED, I CRAWLED WITH ATAXIC LEGS,
OVER THE TRACK AND I BLEW!
STILL DO.
I WONDER WHAT THAT MOVIE WAS LIKE?
CARTOON VERSION, PATIENT REVIEW.

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Submission Guidelines: Poems of no more than 30 lines in length each will be considered.