Anthony Hett

I am a 26 year old writer originally from a small town in North East Wales and I have been living in Islington for the past twelve months. I have performed at spoken word evenings, open mics and slams in North Wales, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Warwick and London and I won the DGPS Liverpool Slam 2009. I am a member of the 'Keats House Emerging Poets Forum' and as well as writing and performing poetry; I am currently writing a full length feature film as part of my MA Creative Writing (Plays & Screenplays) at City University London and collaborating with an illustrator on a children's book project. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/anthonyhett

http://www.myspace.com/hurricanehett

S.L.D

Sarah was born on

a warm spring evening April 1991

and passed to her mother

a healthy baby girl but

call it mothers intuition

call it what you will

for Anne knew that there was something wrong

straight from the off

something it took the doctors

a further three years to diagnose.

You see,

Sarah was slow to walk

and Sarah slow to talk

but that wasn't it

it was something different, something more.

No true diagnosis

but finally termed special needs

bracketed under the massive banner

of severe learning difficulties

no precise label of her own

just SLD whatever that means.

Fast forward a few years

and football obsessed Sarah is now twelve.

A big girl for her a age

fully developed in body

but no more than around six in her mind,

the way they say she will always be

It was on the eve of her thirteenth birthday,

already a troublesome teen for several years

when Sarah went missing.

Somewhere between the end of school

and the beginning of her after school club

off in search of Wenger's men

Sarah was snatched from the street

by a family friendly face

not the cold hard stare of a maniac

you might expect

what went on we can only imagine

but lets not 

the ordeal took its toll on her six year old mind

and Sarah's already complicated behaviour

became more extreme over night.

Overly sexual and often violent

towards family, friends and teachers a like

all traces of the Sarah

who would go to school on a sunny day

in retro red and green lensed 3-D glasses was gone.

Sarah was on the verge of exclusion from school,

her mother loved her so much

but all affection was lost.

No father around

and young children in the house

at fourteen it was difficult for Sarah to remain at home.

And the worst part.

When quizzed by the cops

Sarah said she like it

when she was touched,

it made her feel loved.

What happened in the intervening trophy less years

I don't know but

I last saw Sarah a couple of months ago.

All thoughts of football stripped from her mind,

she was out on the street at night

baggy arsenal football shirt

and sideways cap replaced, by

tiny denim shorts

fake fur coat

and high heels as tall as the

tower block she grew up in.

Still the owner of a six year old mind,

Sarah now works the streets

because… it makes her feel loved.

Anthony Hett