Letter / Poem

Letter (written by Sarah Bennett)

I wrote a letter to the person I used to be / placed it in a postbox without a return address / it turned up at my front door a few days later / I always thought I could be separate people / that I could pretend the girl I was at eighteen wasn’t me / a different person per age / per era / how neglectful to turn my back / to act like this girl isn’t precious / worthy / who am I to try and change her / to pretend not to know her / she made mistakes / we can name her flaws / but she’s hurting alongside the rest of them / hoping with the rest of them / yearning to be wanted by somebody / not even her own self likes to remember / her words / her body / she tastes rejection on her tongue / I wrote a letter to the person I used to be / I received it in the post and read those words out loud / I framed that letter / a reminder that she is beautiful / that she is not someone created to be forgotten / that she makes up who I am / if I love myself now / I must love myself then

An older poem I forgot I wrote but here it is again and I’m glad I’ve remembered.

Sarah xx