naked

By charlie james

'naked' is a collection of poems focused around my teenage years. It is confessional and coming-of-age, including themes centred around identity, existentialism, love and heartbreak, sex and trauma. The poems in this book have been divided into three sections to describe and organise my formative years as I have experienced them - through my bod

• Language: English
• Publisher: charlie james
• Release date: Oct 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781739620592

Book preview

I

Part One

PART I.

BODY

Chapter 1

THIS IS NOT A SEXY POEM

Fuck me to death and

scream my name

while you do it, groan

that you love me

so fucking much into my ear

and I might say it back.

Make sure you get off

on my pain, yank my hair,

slap me hard on my cheeks

and leave your bruises on

my gentle neck until

it stops breathing.

Don’t forget to fixate

on my tits and suck as hard

as you can because that

doesn’t hurt at all.

Leave my body in the dirt

of your bedsheets when you’re

done and while you’re gone,

I’ll lay on my back and get myself off.

Chapter 2

PROGRAMMING

To them, my body is a

slippery vessel designed

purely for pleasure,

complete with a perfectly functioning

warm mouth and soft layers of skin

that have been ripped apart over the years.

Here’s an instruction manual

written specially, just for you!

It dictates that all you need to do

is kiss my neck and touch me gently,

then I become all yours with a whisper.

Instead, you’re cutting me open

like a piece of fruit and watching

with glee as the seeds in me fall out

while I try to give myself to you. Fail.

You’re exhausting my skin, I’m rusting.

Chapter 3

VIRGIN

Virginity in itself is

a shameful concept forced

upon the impressionable minds

of beautiful young girls by

silly little boys with their brains

festering in their unwashed dicks.

Their tongues are just hungry

for pure, untouched pussy that

they can brag about and say that

she is now their trophy, their whore,

their obedient little piece of gold.

The logic of sex in films doesn’t

help this fact – according to them,

harsh slaps, rope burns on wrists

and rough jabs at her clit (but probably not)

are all she needs for her body to release.

I think, look at her!

She’s bruised like a peach,

her eyes are raw and watery

and she’s bleeding from her lips,

no aftercare is being given so

what the fuck?

Or, if you want to follow other

film logic, you can be really original

and give her ten seconds,

maybe fifteen if you’re feeling kind,

of slow and silent lovemaking

that results in a barrier breaking orgasm.

Who was I to fall victim

to patriarchal bullshit and

let myself become a trophy

before I’d turned sixteen?

For me, it felt like a race

of Who Can Fuck First?

between my friends and I,

which I was losing. It shouldn’t

have ever