Unique at Heart
My mind can be a sordid place, filled with shadow and sin;
My thoughts a twisted mass of dark, black and terrible within.
Sometimes I wish it was not so;
Pray it change by tide and flow.
I want to hide it, to keep the black unseen;
I wear a mask, to cover all that is unclean.
Which one would you like to see? I have so many to choose from,
So many faces to offer the eyes as they gaze and come.
I do not feel like having the corners of my lips turn up so easily,
To have my eyes crinkle and alight so endearingly;
Perhaps they might shine and shimmer,
Threaten to spill as my strength grows thinner.
I do not want the outside to come in, the stranger to witness,
All that I am, the core of myself, the truth in the stillness.
I am left alone, amidst all company,
I am apart, surrounded by all the somebodies.
Fiona Jenkins is a recent graduate of the Creative Writing MA programme at Oxford Brookes University. She also has a BA in Classical Studies from Concordia University. She has previous publications in poetry and short-fiction, and has a novel in development. Born in Canada, she grew up in Montreal, Quebec with her family where the lush and natural landscape inspired her to write from an early age. She is currently at work completing her first prose manuscript.
