The Colours of My Sadness Are Running Down My Face, by Henry Bladon

Artwork by Marina Barnes (UK) 2020

The Colours of My Sadness Are Running Down My Face

​I start to cry.
I tell my crow that I feel as if I am in a cage.
I ask her if there is a cure for loneliness.
 
She says, when you are left alone, it rains grains of rice instead of droplets of water. 
They congeal in your hair and weigh you down like cement.
 
She says:
You pick at the loose wool 
and unravel your favourite jumper 
and then get that feeling 
that you’re about to burst into tears 
so you breathe in 
and stare at the floor for a beat 
until you exhale like 
you’re checking your breath 
on a freezing January morning.
 
My crow is called Kat.
She tells me I should be happy because nothing can keep me in a cage.

Henry Bladon

Henry is a writer, poet and mental health essayist based in Somerset in the UK. He has a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Birmingham. His latest poetry collection is a collaboration about mental health with Dutch artist Marcel Herms and is available from Egalitarian Publishing.