The Night of Nine Manhattans double-parked my cocktailsmarked me empress of the open bar while bridesmaids tussled in the firing line yet I was borne toward the thrown bouquetquick enough to call it mine and when I took that posy such a rage rose in me to want what everyone didand be made a woman by it…
Ivy League I wish I could weara polo shirt withoutlooking stupid, or ridein a regatta withoutmy fringe flying up, revealingmy premature wrinklesbecause I keep my eyebrows upeven at rest. The bad tasteof rich boys makes mesweat. Sponsors’ namesmake me sweat—foundationswhich seem to me darkendless aislesof mood lighting.I have wanderedthe days searchingfor myself in car windows.I…
Excerpt from ‘sequence spell(ing)’ further than we go the tune oflurching over water & blurry vision underwater is damp is stable it iswatching us both water makes us happy bottled water can be refrigerated can bebought water trickles down a drainpipe &spotted sky (re)arranges water water is aslot machine for water water is a thing…
Dynamite I.m. Jessie Riethmuller In Hornby everyone is doing their best.People are wearing shoes in PAK’nSAVE and the shelves in Goodstüff are abundantly stocked and clean. In Valentine’s Buffet, the server asks God to bless my mum, and comps her birthday meal. The office manager at the big garage calls me ‘doll’, esteem for a grateful client. We…
After Amber Butchart Half-watching TV. Something lightI thought—a sewing history showre-enacting how they mighthave fashioned this or that back in the day. The presenter is chic—modern yet nostalgic.Her sharp & shining bob wrapped up in velvet froth,her vibrant eyes & lips aglow against her pale skin.She is expertise and whimsy, forensic and fun. At the…
we drive that corkscrewand ride it down so manytimes we are experts atreading the looks of otherdrivers for signs of spots leftat the top the administrationprints tickets numbered andhued for the doors of eachfloor there is no primaryentrance i negotiate a way inone night they move youfrom your own room to award of old men…
Three wordsobsessall herds.Our best intentswill hedge the betsand dredge up allthe past.Appalledhow fast the fadeputs paid. Zoë Deans lives in Ōhinehou and works in drug harm reduction. Their writing can be found in The Spinoff, takahē, bad apple, and others.
to enter: precision of inhale and exhale, stress and relief, of the form which enables her to speak, for without it she might utter something incomprehensible, even worse, truthful, but she finds herself leaning too heavily on each stress, like a child on new skates, about to fall head-first, she hides behind the structure of surprise, …
Based on Year 1 spelling list vocabulary Mum, Dad,I see the way you try to be kind, how you find it in your hands, your bones,make it with your lips.You dot it here and thereon a bump, a task, a gift, my name. At my agein your kid daysit was not as fun, not as…
The down and back puts me in a contemplative affectation occasioned by the miracle of buoyancy, which seems like a frivolous name for a state of being where without even having to grow a gas bladder I can inhabit both water and air in 25-meter increments. A human incarnation requires dual states which thought, like buoyancy, my swim…