by Hanna Thomas Uose

Drop out of bed, roll
to the bathroom, wash
away regrets. Crawl
down the hallway on
your elbows (kneepads essential).
Reply to five emails:

pow pow

pow

pow pow

Now drop and give me twenty,
check your phone – he
has not replied – no matter.

Plunge your fingers into paint,
drag the tips across your cheeks.
You are ready. Pick up the pencil
or the notebook or the brush.

Hanna Thomas Uose

Hanna Thomas Uose is a British Japanese writer and interdisciplinary strategist, facilitator and coach for social change. Her poetry has been published and is forthcoming in Bad Form, Badlands, Crooked Arrow Press, and The Selkie. She is currently writing her first novel and will be working towards her MA in Prose Fiction at UEA from September.