When I fall asleep by Jessica Lyon-Wall

One Poem Only · Sep 19, 2025 · 2m

When I fall asleep

by Jessica Lyon-Wall

I was 12 when they brought me back.

The process

Was a slow one, over a year I went unnoticed,

Pale, thin, and guzzling

My brother's juice in secret.

One day I went to sleep

And didn't wake up.

I don't know how I got there,

But I remember some bright lights.

Then starched sheets and my teddy,

The wires in my hair.

They said I had been gone 3 days,

Link up my machines, I could be an industry!

(This is perhaps a story I should never tell)

I'd find my mum in the medicine room, practicing,

Stabbing citrus again,

But oranges don't bruise and satsumas

Don't…