Overheard on Auckland Transport

i’m going to my brother-in-law’s again

i mean i know la traviata backwards

if he’s gonna tell me ‘not to text boys’
then i’d better expect the same from him 

she dies of consumption right 
most of those people do

it was all right the first time  

*god* i am ready to go out and drink! 

he can’t text ‘boys’?
girls, i’m saying girls!

i do know him well
he married my sister

it was a big thing in victorian times 

he didn’t like me 
because my name was too ‘christian’
that was like his main reason

my sister died eight months ago

tonight we are gonna find someone
*hotter* than tobias to make out with

she was gregarious, naughty

his name’s literally ‘noah’ 
the guy built an ark 

you know what i mean by naughty

it’s ‘biblical’ as

what’s wrong with being short?
my dad is short! actually
my dad is an *asshole*

when you’re buying to rent
don’t look at it like | your | house

my brother-in-law is dating again
he has a girlfriend now

cut | off | any emotional connection 

what tobias doesn’t have in height
he makes up for in *other ways* 

this last trip i really fell in love           
with france

of course i want him to be happy
but he’ll never find someone like my sister

---

Anuja Mitra lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her poetry and prose have appeared in local and international publications including takahē, Landfall, Cordite, Turbine | Kapohau, Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook, The Forge, Mote, and several anthologies. More of her work is at https://linktr.ee/anuja_mitra.