Ghosts
By Julia Rossi

My dreams - life desires
Follow me around
Like tiny fires.
I hear them in my head
When I lie in bed.
The memories of those dreams
Haunt me like ghosts;
The ghosts are frail - they break at the seams...
So there go all my hopes and dreams.  

Audience
By Lexie Barker

She was my piano
My chords and my keys
I would brush my fingertips over her ribs
Scrape her scars
To hear her sing.
I would kiss her sinking bruises
Tug her hair
To hear the beat
Oh, how I danced to her screams
Hummed to her sobs
I can still recall her failing eyes
How when she sung her soul bled
Now I must sing to her
But I don't mind; my favourite audience is dead. 

A New Person in an Old Body
By Summer Woolcock.

An official black pen; my body trembles
In excitement.
I ask when
The special letter was sent. 

Woolcock's the new name. 
He was going to be the only one,
He said that's a shame.

This is quite fun;
The anticipation.
I wait quietly for the register
This is the start of a new creation. 

My new identity.
​This is the new me. 

The Follower
By Isla Mills

One thing follows me from room to room,
Catching sound in its tendrils, distorting
The words that should be 'whistle' and 'boom'
Into a slow warbling murmur. Ebbing

Through my brain, throwing the wisps of my thoughts
Into spirals of loosely connected matter.
But instead of going to the doctors as I ought,
I push it down, flatter and flatter. 

Lights become blinding, feelings become hyper,
I find it hard to focus on anything.
I can feel the itchiness of my jumper.
Even rocks look really bling. 

Things keep blinking in and out of focus
My eyes are constantly hot, blurry,
Please just stop this hocus pocus
I think there's a ghost inside me! 

P.S. This is what autism feels like.

The Villain
By Lexie Barker

Let's not romanticise the villain
The one who shredded my soul.
The villain who destroyed me
Whose words tore me to pieces.
Let's not romanticise the villain
The person that stopped me from being free.
Let's not romanticise the villain.
But I fear the villain is me.

The Connection
By Franki Norfolk Ainsworth

I don't know who you are,
Or what you are all about,
All I know is you exist.
The chain, it rattles
with my every move.
I love you and I hate you.

So close to you but
At the same time distant.
I want to hug you forever but
I also want to run away.
You are the connection but
​I don't know if I want you or not.