Imagine a beak-less chick
trying desperately to be hatched!

Incubation complete, but no
means of cracking the shell.

That is how I have felt all my
life. On a treadmill of survival
and no opportunity to deviate.

I just had a letter from Jennifer
at the Munster Literature Centre
to tell me that my poem 'Coming Out'
had been long listed.

How odd, and I had no idea that I had
written it, I assumed she made a mistake.

It was mine alright, I found the scrap of
paper and recognised my handwriting.