Up the Staircase: Gillian Prew/title> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Created by BlueVoda"> </head> <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="black" vlink="black" alink="black"> <center> <table border=0> <tr> <td> <td> <b> the gnawing sorrow</b><br><br> this is me this<br> gnawing sorrow<br> hunched under hair<br> loosely bound in skin<br> splitting from the moans<br> of sighing bones osteoporosing<br> faintly but with dignity<br><br> and I sit<br> on a pile of<br> coffee-stained paperbacks<br> and birdword notebooks<br> containing flapping poems<br> caged<br> in softbound covers<br><br> and beneath those slack<br> breasts thread upon thread<br> of wilfulness spun to<br> tie my heart together<br> while lungs garrotted by despair<br> have lost<br> three-quarters of breath<br><br> ©Gillian Prew</i>