Spit and spill By Julie Barney

Spit and spill

I wish you didn’t sit like that, folded.

Love and pain pushed by cross-heart
through clothes to skin - Soaking in
until blood runs thin and hurt fills you.

I wish you didn’t sit like that, silent.

Word-stones behind teeth multiplying,
pressed into soft places and bone.
Dry, hot and sharp - eroding too slowly.

I wish you didn’t sit like that, choking.

Julie Barney lives on the Isle of Wight with her husband and two grown-up children. She works full-time as an early years practitioner, for an organisation that shares her love of the outdoors, and her belief in its ability to heal. She writes when she can, especially when she should be doing other things.