The Orwell Youth Prize 2015 Winner – Year group 9, 10, 11
Anorexia joined our school today,
Her spindly legs poisoning every step.
Few
Began to warm to her,
Show her round…
And slowly, she dug her way in,
The monster of eighty-pounds.
Anorexia joined our school today,
And smeared her gaze across the lunch table.
More
Began to get her
Message,
The judging eye,
And slowly, food was pushed
Aside.
Anorexia joined our school today,
Her skeletal fingers picking away at what we had known,
We became
Drunk,
On an ecstasy
Of jealously,
And slowly, she snapped our bones.
Anorexia joined our school today,
She was always watching us,
The eyes of
Dr Eckleburg,
Her venomous words whispered in our ears,
But she was no doctor, no nurse
And slowly, we caught her disease and drank her tears.
Anorexia joined our school today,
Corrupted our Internet histories and minds,
‘How many calories in
This, will it
Bloat my figure?’
‘My darlings,
Underweight is overweight – you cannot stop’,
She’d reply,
And slowly, we would lap up her lie.
Anorexia joined our school today,
And people began to accuse. ‘You’re
Doing this for attention!’ And perhaps then
I saw I was blind. We loved her,
But did not like her:
Anorexia wasn’t a silly girl,
She was an epidemic of the mind.
Anorexia left our school today,
Perhaps she now felt exposed.
We’d sought for help and
Knew it now. So if
She ever starts to whisper to you,
Remember this:
Quick! Say your hasty goodbye,
Whatever she is saying,
It is not truth –
It is a lie.