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Awards and Publications

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Causley Trust

Runner up
International poetry competition 2022

 

Comments from Head Judge Seán Hewitt:

A prose poem of blistering imagery, using the personal like a lightning rod to channel a vision of racial injustice and beauty standards, this is a text that handles an emotional and political core with skill.  

 

Korean bleach

google says that if you have brown skin and you want to turn it white then you can buy this cream from korea , so i bought this cream from korea . it came in a green package  i didn’t understand the instructions but i assumed the more i used the whiter i’d become , why did i want to be white ?   my mother is white  and all the people around me playing tennis were white  and Zora Neal Hurston says  ‘ we feel most coloured when we are thrown against a sharp white background ’ and i was living in a white world where i stood out  and it wasn’t just my skin it was   the shape of my body  strong and defined  long    flat feet  hair wild  shoulders broad  . the girls around me were mostly blonde with small bodies and arches in their ballerina feet petite  , i tried so many things to fit in with them  straightening my hair  not eating  talking like them  staying out of the sun  wearing little clothes and shoes that were too small  but i was nothing like them  and it hurt   .  the day i made this purchase i remember because my tennis coach called me a nigga after i missed three balls in the net  i had barely any money at the time but i paid extra for express shipping  this had to be quick because i had to be white . 

 

when the potion came it fucked me raw raping the melanin away from my skin   screaming so loud no one could hear me . i am silent after this i am silent .  after this i am just waiting  i                                                             don’t know what i am waiting for for but it’s not here . it’s still not here yet . 

My home in transit

I’m sat in the window seat of an aeroplane looking out at the clouds and the sky; it feels meditative. Often I find myself here. Somewhere that’s nowhere. I’ve been on the go for a while now. Sometimes life tells us we need to grow up before we even know what that means. I worry whether my friends will still be my friends if I grow up too quickly? They don’t have to grow up as quick as me, but I watch them try. I listen to them chatter about boys and drinking, drugs they have tried recently, parties they’re going to on the weekend. They don’t invite me anymore because they know I’ll be away, again, far away most likely. It’s all a lot, but it’s only for now I tell myself. One day I’ll be normal just like them.

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More publications

London Institute of Medical Science

https://stories.lms.mrc.ac.uk/elisha-gabb/index.html

Wildfire Anthology: Elisha Gabb

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