Poetry: At first they took my fingernails

By Rhianna Varney

At first they took my fingernails, and I didn’t really see;

I was too busy working. Then they took my knees.

This one I felt a lot,

but I tried to ignore the pain. I had things to do.

It was probably just a sprain.

It was when they took my hair, my eyes and my nose too,

that a stranger stopped and said, ‘They have stolen most of you!’

I heard what they said,

but I kept working all the same. ‘I know I am disappearing,

but I still have my name.’

Then they stole this too. At last, I was no more.

I disappeared at home one day. Why didn’t I run, before?

***

Rhianna Varney is a writer and musician who graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA (Hons) Creative Writing. She enjoys writing poetry, plays, and prose. Her poem “Waiting” was longlisted for the Finding Peace: Poetry Challenge, run by the Young Poets Network. Her short play Where did he go? was performed at the Traverse Theatre as part of its young writers group. She lives in Berlin.