Heart On My Sleeve by Isabella Hawkins
She lies hidden under layers of deception
an armour of optimism, laughs and grins.
My heart is overheated
with no way for her emotions to escape.
Overwhelmed and suffocated,
she is being baked alive.
A boiling reactor of nuclear anger and sadness
waiting to be released.
My chainmail ribcage bends
at the accumulated pressure.
Raw unfiltered emotions surface
sneaking through cracks
begging to be seen
beneath.
In her recovery
she yearns for liberation.
The protection is restricting
she just wants to breathe.
Bandages interwoven with compassion
are applied with kind hands.
Ointment infused with understanding
cools the inflamed walls of my heart.
I don't wear my heart on my sleeve
as much as I wish I did.
Until she can roam blissfully free
I'm peeling the layers back piece by piece.
“The poem Heart on my sleeve feels so personal that I could never articulate exactly how I felt. No matter how many times I rewrote it, the piece never felt right. Each rejection only reassured this feeling of it being incomplete.”
Isabella Hawkins (she/her) is a Melbourne (Naarm) based writer and photographer. She has recently regained her love of reading again, so in her free time you can find her with romance or fantasy novels. When she isn't reading, she goes on walks and takes nature photography. Isabella's writing has been previously published in Livina Press. Twitter and Instagram: @thoughtsofahawk