Author: Joan Fleming
is the author of two collections of poetry, The Same as Yes (VUP, 2011) and Failed Love Poems (VUP, 2015), and the chapbook Two Dreams in Which Things Are Taken (Duets). Her new collection Dirt is forthcoming. She holds a PhD in ethnopoetics from Monash University, and is the New Zealand/Aotearoa Commissioning Editor for Cordite Poetry Review. She currently lives in Madrid, and in 2020 she will travel to Honduras for the Our Little Roses Poetry Teaching Fellowship.
Joan Fleming
Night interview Is it the past that hurts? This is where I try to sleep Did you reason with it? For a time And the flowers? There were a purple they paled in the middle Did they please the room? They pleased themselves You were gifted clothes. No fit was fire enough There was talk of a home chill. The best do not talk about it What of the first fit? I wish an erasure of it Of the first rush, too? Rush leaves So what got left behind? Polished cuff I gave it away What stayed? A taste of metal Was this a repetition?“Joan Fleming”
Joan Fleming
Twenty questions What did my tenderness suggest to you was it too sweet was it not enough What I wanted was it too rough ██████ ██████████████████████████████████ Was it your pained puppy–dog ███████ eke ██████ Was it the red dogs’ feet barking through the afternoons did they mark their needs ██████████████ in your too–soft wood floor Was I too good and then at some sly test no good at all Was it when I fell asleep ████████████████████████████ was that █ cruel ███████ ███████████████ Did the entire ███████████████████ feel intolerably like school Was it the careful seepage in the car a scent I hate Was it the you of you never ████ █████ or late Was it that I wanted you to“Joan Fleming”