The Friend in the Green T-shirt

Sit back and don't relax. My name is Jemima Hughes, I'm a performance poet from Birmingham, a multi slam winner and I came runner up in the 2020 UK Slam! My performances will drag you through the “mindfield” of the unorthodox, emphasising mental health awareness and covering taboo subjects including sexual violence, mental illness and suicide. I take the audience on a journey through my own experiences, providing a relatable outlet and encouraging conversation, usually leaving them questioning whether I meant to do that, or whether I need to go and have a lie down.

The piece I'm sharing with you via the embedded video is 'The Friend in the Green T-shirt' and is by far the most emotional piece I've written to date. After meeting my best friend four years ago, I was suddenly hit by a debilitating mental breakdown which left me fighting for my life on numerous occasions. The breakdown stemmed from a traumatic experience, when I was 16 year old, of being in an abusive relationship involving sexual violence and attempted kidnap. Thankfully, having come into contact with this friend, I had a kind of support through my breakdown that I never knew existed. His friendship really does define the word 'unconditional'. This poem I wrote for him, to fully explain to him how important his friendship was throughout the most painful and terrifying experience of my life. I share this poem now with the hope that it reaches others who are struggling and lets them know they are not alone, and allows them to believe that there is more to come in their life regardless of how hopeless they feel. I also hope it encourages more people to be someone's 'Friend in the Green T-shirt' because these friends are saving lives every single day.

The colour green is the colour of friendship for me. One day when I was crying uncontrollably, my friend said to me, "I wore a green t-shirt so you can snot on it all you like." This managed to break a smile through the pain, but it also acted as solid reassurance that he didn't mind that I cried, or how much, which is so important for anyone who needs to expel negative emotions. If we suppress how we're feeling, it builds up and inevitably overflows at some point, as it did for me. We have to validate each others emotions so that they are easier to process and healing can begin.

My performance poetry may not be for the faint hearted, but it is always from the heart.

I'll let the poem say the rest, and I really hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoy performing it.

This poem is taken from my debut poetry collection ‘Unorthodox’ which is published with Verve Poetry Press.