Pony
New Lynn
Actually, a whole traveling farm, a portable farm with
rats and bunnies, chickens too? It was my sister’s birthday.
Baths
Unless my memory is playing tricks on me. The rats
were white with blazing red eyes.
I’m translating myself from a time when I was sure.
Sex with strangers
The man leading the pony in circles was wearing a
cowboy hat.
Sunday School
There was a big pink cake with purple icing and sprinkles.
Of being outside
I was too big to ride the pony. By then I was a young woman.
Conflicts with a certain city
The smaller children took turns riding the pony around the
backyard. There was a creek beyond the section.
I see flashes of our father
up to his knees in dirty water.
Lost love
My sister’s name written in M&Ms.
And he is smoking fish and you will be left behind.
Smoke
home all day you sit at the edge of the living room
on your best behaviour man cat fire two winds appear
who will win your body asks
sinking deeper into carpet
but time but cars pass
the contract eats itself and I stay in my skin
your body is wet when you’re sad
I lie at the centre a pool of oil
If I answer this call will the smoke rise?
are the ancestors
always watching?
this is my other
the quiet half eaten alive
Courtney Sina Meredith is the author of Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick & Tail of the Taniwha (both Beatnik Publishing). She has held various international writing residencies including the prestigious Fall Residency at the University of Iowa. She describes her work as an ongoing discussion of contemporary urban life with an underlying Pacific politique.
