"never/more" & "indigestible" by Jane Ayres

never/more

fossilised (in)

merciless

stitches

sugar-coated

(gift wrapped)

making your move

(not without risk)

hoarding moments

that didn’t belong

to you

would never

be

yours

indigestible

untethered

i was here all the time

but you never really

saw

me

holding the door

keeping it closed

keeping us safe from

monsters

on the other side

together

we are

an unfinished meal

indigestible

UK based neurodivergent writer Jane Ayres re-discovered poetry studying for a part-time Creative Writing MA at the University of Kent, which she completed in 2019 at the age of 57. In 2020, she was longlisted for the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets’ Prize. In 2021, she was nominated for Best of the Net, shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and a winner of the Laurence Sterne Prize. Her first collection edible will be published by Beir Bua Press in July 2022. Website: janeayreswriter.wordpress.com