TEENAGE WASTELAND
each day tallied in chapstick
crass slings of insults never returned
tentacles of gum
undulate from school table underbellies,
mood rings locked in TV static
hair straighteners left on a low hum
black ashy warpaint
carbonised on makeup wipes,
long hairs matted to bedroom carpets
ancient runes on the smartphone notes app
tangerine segment lips
snipped off by a claw clip’s snare,
you reaped them and collected the trinkets
slotted into the mechanical
jaw of a gumball machine,
you clipped their wings off
and hooked them up to cables
jolting life with 400 watts
of plastic pleasure,
you put them in dark rooms
and fed them morsels of hope
and sometimes after beating them
bloody and raw you gave them mirrors,
they often cut themselves on it,
you harvested their elasticity and suppleness
diluted it and processed it and peddled it back
to you old haggard spinsters
so of course the species went extinct
but
“did they leave the hair straighteners on?”
Annabel, 16, England ✯ annabelbellav@gmail.com
“Annabel is an avid writer who has been conjuring up stories from her earliest memories. She views herself as a fiction writer but currently is channelling her love for manipulating the English language by delving into the realm of poetry. Looking ahead, she aspires to continue her writing journey and aims to create a career of it that spans both literature and the world of film and screenwriting. Outside of her literary pursuits, she can be found playing her musical instruments, immersed in a book or on the tennis court.”