Photograph by Hamish Danks Brown

Koraly Dimitriadis will be performing as part of Rude Poets! A Night of Naughty Poetry

She’s Not Normal

Poem by Koraly Dimitriadis. Written, directed, produced by Koraly Dimitriadis. Starring Koraly Dimitriadis and Kitty San Pedro.

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Are you a writer?

If you are a writer,
you may need
to ask yourself

am I a puppet or
a writer?

Puppet has become
the new hipster,
as the literati chink
their glasses,
the panellists
keep their seats warm
for the next round,
pull down their pants,
ready to hand out new badges
to the most critically acclaimed kissers

If you are a writer, ask yourself:
Do you write what you really think?
Do you sound like everybody else?
Do you try to mould and shape shift
present yourself like a present to
the mainstream?

Mainstream left
or the mainstream right
it’s really the same thing,
clinging to the safety
of solidarity,
for argument’s sake

Sure, there’s safety in numbers
We all want to get paid
Best to pick a side
& stick to it
But ask yourself,
are you perpetuating problems
to stay clicked into the clique
for the glory of retweets?

Both the left and the right,
they don’t want change,
they just want to stay
stuck in their ways
I wonder sometimes:
Do I live inside fairy-tale snow-globe
because I hope for change?

They’ll try to burn you
at the stake from both sides
if you go out on a limb
Be fearless, be bold
You may think the cost is too great,
but if we all don’t rise up and speak,
say what we really think,
humanity will have to
foot the silence
instead

‘Are You a Writer?’ first appeared in Verge: Defiant 2023

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Koraly Dimitriadis is a poet, writer and performer and the author of the poetry books Love and Fck Poems and Just Give Me The Pills. Her short story collection The Mother Must Die is forthcoming with Puncher and Wattmann, 2024. www.koralydimitriadis.com

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