Sophia Georghiou
She never stood a chance. My first doll,
snatched from her cellophane-veiled box,
strip-searched, judged guilty on the spot.
I can still picture her limbs
floating around the bath, the black
clump of synthetic hair coiled beneath my pillow.
Her face felt-tipped all red and brown,
the locker full of names I gave her
after girls I envied at school.
Years later, I fished her out.
Of course her hair hadn’t grown, of course,
she’d kept the gnostic smile some factory arm
had painted over the pale bump of a mouth.
Rubbing the hips of her, naked in my fingers,
I saw the thousand other daughters
use gentle hands, plant a secret
kiss before lights out.
Sophia Georghiou has been published in The Journal of Creative Writing Research and various poetry journals such as Poetry London, Lineage, the6ress and others. Her poetry was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and longlisted for the Pat Kavanagh Prize. Her forthcoming collection Gloria Trillo won an Eric Gregory Award in 2025.
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