Featured Poet - Bexley Indica
I HAVE SOMETHING WORTH TELLING YOU,
IF YOU’RE DONE WITH EVERYTHING.
today’s weather is miserable.
It’s not a good backdrop
for final thoughts.
come with me. let’s walk instead.
not away,
just out of the exact spot
where it hurts the most.
If we pass somewhere warm,
we’ll step in.
buy something unnecessary.
eat it too fast. laugh at that.
back at mine,
we’ll leave our coats wherever they fall.
I’ll put the kettle on
and forget about it halfway through.
there’s a song I want you to hear,
nothing meaningful,
just familiar enough to keep you grounded.
If you get tired,
lie down.
If you don’t,
sit with me anyway.
I’m not asking you to stay forever.
I’m asking you to stay with me
until this day finishes using you.
tomorrow exists.
that’s all this is about.
just agreeing
to stay curious
one more day.
SOFT DAMAGE
I wake with something that doesn’t belong to the morning.
the air tastes plain,
like it hasn’t made up its mind about me.
I haven’t either.
I sit on the edge of the bed long enough
for the folds in the blanket to memorise my shape.
long enough for my legs to fall asleep
before the rest of me could.
the mug on the table still has a faint ring from yesterday.
or a couple of days ago.
I wipe it with my thumb
and pretend it’s enough to count as starting again.
it isn’t.
I pour something warm into it,
hold it because the heat feels like a decision.
sometimes warmth is the closest I come to trying.
I tell myself this is a new day,
but it feels more like a continuation
of something I didn’t consent to carry.
someone once said, “you’ll feel better soon,”
but no one said who I’d be
once the feeling leaves.
LOOK UP
I let the rain hit my face
because it seems easier than tears,
because it covers the taste of panic.
It’s strange
how your own emotions
can feel too heavy to hold,
but water
that means nothing
can sit on your skin
without consequence.
without making you explain
why you needed a moment
to be washed
by something that isn’t yours.
and for a second,
just long enough,
it feels like the sky
is willing to carry
what you can’t.
HOW I AM STILL HERE
I organise my life
so I don’t have to feel it.
I am good at maintenance.
at functioning.
at making sure nothing spills.
sometimes I wonder
what would happen
if I stopped arranging my life
into manageable pieces.
If I let one feeling arrive
without immediately translating it
into something useful.
but usefulness has kept me alive.
and right now,
that feels more important
than honesty.
ASSISTED LIVING
my bones feel administrative,
holding me up out of obligation,
not strength.
as if stopping
would require a reason,
and I don’t have the energy
to justify needing one.
everything feels fragile
like it’s already mid-break
and I’m the last person allowed
to touch it.
I stand still long enough
to feel like furniture.
this is the closest I get to rest.
people say it’s okay to take up space.
no one tells you
what to do with it
once you have.
ABOUT THE POEMS:
My poetry is centred around mental health, survival, and the quieter inner landscapes people often move through alone. Rather than explaining mental health directly, the poems focus on ordinary moments, routines, objects, pauses, and use them as entry points into what it feels like to live with ongoing emotional weight. Across this work, I’m interested in how pain can exist without spectacle, and how small, everyday details can carry what’s difficult to articulate. Writing and sharing these poems has also helped create a small but meaningful sense of safety, both for myself and for readers who’ve reached out to say the work resonated with their own experiences.
ABOUT BEX
Bex is a UK-based poet whose work explores mental health through restraint, stillness, and the emotional undercurrents of everyday life. Their poems often sit with moments that feel unremarkable on the surface, breakfast tables, quiet rooms, passing thoughts, and allow them to open into something heavier and more human. Living with mental health challenges, including borderline personality disorder, informs their writing, though it is never the subject in itself. Instead, their focus is on connection, survival, and the unspoken experiences many people recognise but struggle to name. Their work has resonated with hundreds of readers, fostering a sense of shared understanding and emotional safety.
Instagram: @bexleyspoetry
