Concealed By My Glasses
My first ever glasses placed among my face
Almost like a mask, hiding me away
They say I chose them, but this isn’t the case
I observed and that was it, nothing to say
I didn’t see everything, but my glasses did
The love, the happiness, hatred and pain
My emotions being played with like a bid
The glasses blocking my very own rain
My glasses knew me better than anyone
They knew my secrets, memories and feelings
Feelings which were known by no-one
Not trapped but concealed by my glasses
By Ruby Ridout
This is such a clever way to tackle some very big themes – isolation, identity, how we disguise and protect ourselves from others, and how sometimes we find it hard to drop these defenses as time goes by. The image of the glasses is a really effective symbol – they help the speaker to see, but they also reflect the world back, keeping it at a distance. The rhyme scheme you’ve chosen works really well to keep the poem feeling snappy and to-the-point – I do wonder, though, if working without it would give you more freedom to explore new directions in the poetry? I also wonder if the word ‘among’ in the first line is quite the best choice – maybe ‘upon’ would work to suggest the movement of placing the glasses on the speaker’s face? But all in all, these are minor suggestions – the poem is working beautifully and is full of memorable imagery.