The following piece is published as part of our TLM Young Writers series, a dedicated section of The London Magazine‘s website which showcases the work of exceptional young talent aged between 13-21, from the UK and beyond.

Abigail Huke

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Risk of Showers

 

I want my rage to be

hot and dry 

but it is wet and somewhat tepid. The temperature of the bath when you 

get out. 

Aren’t women meant to be humid?

Or was it black and yellow and bile and phlegm?

I can’t remember 

 

Sometimes I feel like a liquid,

when I forget my shape.

It is actually quite hard to pour water from container to container- you always end up losing a bit 

each time. 

How do men shout down buildings and build up walls? 

Even you,

not a man, but a mother. 

The only saltwater you know is the sea.

 

When he said that thing again:

I’m getting sick of this.

(you)

I wanted to laugh but the weather betrayed me. I wish my tongue could pull apart the clouds and send fireballs burning

(How do men?)

rather than thick globules of human shame

and human guilt 

made portable.

At least I can carry it with me

wherever I go.

What was it that women are meant to be again?

_

 

Abigail Huke is a twenty-one year old history graduate. She is originally from Rotherham. 

 

 

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