by Sally Edwards
Image credit: Jody Hong
Losing my grip on reality
Beginning to fall down this slippery slope
Feelings of despair and isolation
believing that there is no hope
How will I wake from this nightmare
how can I mute voices in my head,
Some days I think I can handle it
some days I wish I was dead.
I look all around me for a companion
someone I can talk to and cry
but the only friend that can soothe me
comes in a bottle with a substance inside
a substance that gives me some respite
from the memories I try to forget
a substance so freely given at times
when we relax and celebrate
her bottles and cans do surround me
as I wake from the cruel dark of night
and the pain deep within is overwhelming
go insane with this sentence of misery yes I just might
who else is going to save me
can anyone really hear my cries
or am I alone on this island
no ship to take me aside
so I sink further into the bottle
the only thing I have left
when horrors in my past I remember
she helps me to heal and forget
I have to leave my mistress
as she’s leading me further astray
and I know I will live without her
some year some moment some day
Sally Edwards
Sally Edwards began to write four years ago after retiring from a successful Inclusive Dance career. She realised there was a gap in the visibility of Disability/LGBT artists creating work within the arts and took this on personally by writing a story which was later published as a novel How To Love.
Sally’s mission is to raise awareness of and encourage more Disabled LGBT artists to be more visible and enjoy a career in the Arts. Her work has also appeared in DIVA in March and was interview on DIVA Radio.
Sally has performed at various festivals and events such as Lfest, DIVA Literary Festival, Isle of Wight Pride and Hampshire Pride (to name just a few). She has a new novel coming out this year which focuses on the recovery process of having an acquired disability – not just the physical side but also how an event such as this can affect your mental health and the mental health of those closest to you.
