Texture – Written Thursday 22nd January 2026 (Aged 50)

Texture

You are expected
to keep getting back up
and smile,
as if life is the happiest secret —
one that only you know.
And you are expected
to take the blows;
and people…
well, people,
I am not sure they ever know.
They certainly
do not know you —
they do not know
what is happening
in your life.
You just sit there,
and you are expected
to absorb the punch;
and then,
you are expected
to act as if that is okay.
But why?
Why should any of us
just accept it?
Because
they talk to you
as if your life
is one long happy dream.
People, all too often,
are rudely insensitive
to the texture
of your screams —
or, when it comes to it,
your feelings.
And I try my best
to be kind
and helpful,
but it would seem
with people
that is not enough.
Maybe it is me,
maybe I need
to be different —
a different person
in a different place;
another person,
another shape,
maybe even take
my personality
and come clean.
The nature of people —
all too often oblivious
to the texture
of your screams.

James Garratt – Thursday 22nd January 2026

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