Category: Past issues

Phoebe   Phoebeebeebee, Phoebalicious, Phoebershire, your name invites my tongue up on trapezes.   I watch as you fly onto the dusty family mantelpiece sparkle it up, a diamante in our midst, a stud on your nose.   Have I ever thanked you for that generosity? For your willingness to…

star language   you are now an usu one of the brightest my eyes squint to see you nanmadau o beyond the reef   you were fearless you men of the ocean usually are trusting the currents, wind, birds smell of the rain schools of fish comforted by danger home…

He kept saying luscious   New grass. His mother’s churned butter.   So many tuis with no space between. Tasty wood pigeon.   His crumpled old mouth pushing wet words out.   Again: His mother’s churned butter. New grass.       Contents | Previous Author | Next Author | About this Author

The Scar   He walked into the classroom scuff freckles, tough, lichen rock, and Beatle boots.  The radio played ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’. He was ten going on Lennon; I was mesmerised at once. At twelve he lost my signet ring.  I announced in class, ‘I do not…

Hey Tiki!   Hard and cool you remain f/rigid against my soft expanding touch     It’s always been your style to make hearts wince Fuck off Bro you carry me around a trophy show off to your friends I chose well hunter eyes    shark sharp mouth    mark of a warrior but…

Reading poetry to my boyfriend   There’s more space than mass I suppose the wind likes that ratio Otherwise it wouldn’t move …   There’s more space than mass? Well, you need to have an inertia balance Hang on… let me… Mass always stays the same Weight changes relative to…

1 | 2 | 3   Dyed in Paru   ‘Kahu Ora’ makes me think of Blanket Man. It makes me think of Ben.   Ben Hana braved streets paved with cold; drunks drunker than him; histories untold.   At his tangi in Waitangi Park, his coffin was bare. It was bare.  …

1 | 2 | 3   Makariri   ‘It not only gives me warmth outside but I feel very warm inside.’ – Kūkupa Tirikatene   1.   They said this country would be cold. So cold my arse would freeze on the seat.   2.   My husband’s brother asked me, ‘Why?…

1 | 2 | 3   Draft Manifesto for a Feminist Asthmatic in Aotearoa   For so long a feminist e Hineahuone Like the air that I breathe Tihei mauri ora!   Feminism had become e Hineahuone Something I could take for granted Tihei mauri ora!   This year I was diagnosed Tihei…

Dance, Nora, Dance   Dance, Nora, dance! Life of the party importing your coconut macaroons, permafrost white, sweet morsel from far away, hidden in wrappers – you carried back more than a husband.   Dance, Nora, dance! Norwegian dance (hardly!) kicking demurely, toes trotting, half-gliding, feet skipping steadily, hopping invisible…