Filling in the Postpartum Depression Questionnaire I Think of the Sea

Nobody talks about the joy / it is a shard

through still squashed innards / softened from lack of sleep 

mould me again around it / that lodged spike

sometimes I feel myself / expanding again

there's a sloshing of water and blood / a sea sickness

the twinge of tissues extending / they shore up 

against this hard happiness / you bring me a shell 

and I swallow it / I don’t talk about the joy

sunk as I am / with the weight of it 

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Angharad Williams

Angharad Williams (she/her) is a poet living in Manchester, UK. She has previously been published in Petrichor Magazine, JAKE mag and Green Ink Poetry amongst others, and was recently longlisted for the Briefly Write Poetry Prize.