Prayer to St. Emily
I feel like a girl
When I’m cutting my nails with kitchen scissors.
When I take off my high heels
And the pain of it brings me to tears.
I have mastered the art
Of sleeping through sirens
And waking up drunk.
I have mastered the art
Of smearing my eyes in charcoal and glitter.
There is nothing powder cannot cover
There is nothing I cannot swallow.
I have someone
To walk me home when it is dark.
I have someone
To leave me in the mornings
So I can feel
I have invented him.
I have found a man.
I do not think
I’ll ever marry him but
I take what I can get.
I am trying out this life
Like a strapless dress,
And it keeps making indents in my ribs.
Phoebe Stuckes is an English student at Goldsmiths. She has been a winner of the Foyle Young Poets award four times. She has performed at the Ledbury Poetry Festival and the Southbank Centre and was commended in the Christopher Tower Prize in 2014