KNEE BRACE PRESS

A place for stories about chronic illness, disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.

Roses

By

I
The objects of my life are laid bare
Outdoors, on a small blue table

Next to a blue bench, in front of a blue wall;
A sachet of lemon-scented hand-wipes

I have carried for months, like a weapon or Bible;
The pages of a lined notebook are bright white.

Some roses are hunched over
In thin, tube-like vases,

The blooms, dusky tissue-like husks
That dream of edging towards the sun,

Unfastening like ruched skirts in the heat.
Now I pass my afternoon watching

As loosened pieces fall weightless
And drift into pooled rainwater.

Contributor

  • Ellena Dee is a chronically ill writer. She was a runner-up in the 2015 Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition and was specially commended in the Welsh Poetry Competition in 2012 and 2014. Her pamphlet was shortlisted in the Dreich’s Classics Chapbook Competition in 2023. Her poetry has been published in Ink, Sweat & Tears, Mslexia, All Existing Literary, Eunoia Review and Dreich Magazine.