Running

By Vanessa Hiller

I moved faster than a hurricane.

Lucid dreaming followed me and swallowed me whole;

I took a dram of liquid honey and threatened to spill over myself,

I took a knife and ripped up a legacy that started long before the others were born,

Eyes staring down at me.

'Please bear witness to my own brutality,'

I plead.

We are digging up mass graves and creating mountains.

Let me lie here amongst you so my soul can rest.

About Vanessa Hiller:

Vanessa Hiller is a resident of London who paints, draws and writes poetry. During lockdown she was forced to do her primary school teaching job online. Finding it stressful to teach form home, she started to paint and write to keep her sanity. Having spent years, previous to teaching, painting and creating textile-based sculptures, she found that life, children and a full-time teaching career meant that she gave up on creating art. Her creativity needed an outlet during lockdown and she found solace in painting. Hiller also found a new voice in writing poetry. As a dual heritage woman the paintings and writing have helped her to work through her own emotions after the fall-out of the George Floyd incident. She has now been in a number of digital and physical shows and she hopes that her work allows people to reflect. She finds that the work often comes out of the silence of sitting still while meditating.