Neither solid nor liquid Haveyoueverbeento the space where themoanameetstheshore? Kimihia katoa nga putake o te kaupapa, ingia I kitea, kimihia te rongoa.1 When a child is born the water comes first,Then the child,Followed by the afterbirth.What we call our whenua. The ocean expandsIt open and shutslicking the shore’s edgeits hinge has almost fallen off Slapping… Continue reading Hana Pera Aoake
Issue 12 / 2021
Brett Cross, Ellen Morgan Butler, Lisa Samuels, Murray Edmond, essa may ranapiri, Ruby Solly, Amy Leigh Wicks, Vanessa May Crofskey, Dave Drayton, Jake Goetz, Pascalle Burton, Michael Farrell, Judy Annear, Louis Klee, Claire Albrecht, Louis Armand, Toby Fitch, aj carruthers, Emily Stewart, Pam Brown
Autograph (The Little Green Glove) – Alison Glenny
I numbered the pages to remind me of my place. I was afraid of joining the ranks of distracted lovers from whom nothing is safe: …
Composite Sketch of My Enemy – Erik Kennedy
We are asking all members of the public / to be on the lookout for / a bluff, chuffed eager geezer / who’s got the unearned charm of a stolen hotel towel…
Fragments of an Overheard Conversation… – Jasmine Gallagher
Once You Have Chosen a Headstone for the Last of Each Species of Rosa Please Choose from the Following Inscriptions and Symbols: …
COLOUR THEORY (PRIMARY) – Tate Fountain
Three girls at a table in the Market Bar with an overpriced jug of sangria. / Sometimes words are enough. Sometimes memory isn’t.
Expert – Nikki-Lee Birdsey
I will outline a light switch / in black so you won’t miss it. How / the pendulum swings with the / sun in your eyes. The hung crystal / in the window refracts faint greys, / blues, yellows.
LAUREL CANYON – Stephanie Valente
…we’re playing parts, but i wouldn’t act / in any other bullshit play.
Four Untitled – Maureen Alsop
My new formula for grief: who might survive, who, with hammer, might crucify.
Being Ecological – Eamon Tee
My favourite podcast is about the end of the world / It’s the big new thing happening. / It is already happening.
The L’s – Judy Annear
the writer does not write / the words that are there / or the words that are not . . .
Haang Saan – Brecon Dobbie
I could come closer to tickling / the neurons, pulling them a // part, making connections / between the benevolence of a // bright summer’s day and my inability / to perceive reality accurately . . .
ANY CRYSTAL CAN PURIFY YOU… – Rebecca Hawkes
and the oily rainbow aura on the spirit cluster flakes off / as the treatment fades while I still alone and addicted // to new knowledge in my liquid crystal display
ransack – essa may ranapiri
Tumbling through the cunt of Elizabeth I, kissing boys and kissing girls, I lock myself inside my house with 365 rooms and fifty-two staircases.
2 poems – Keith Nunes
Humility / Taken on the rocks / With double shot and / Uber driver waiting. . .
ANTIPHONIES – Ben Egerton
a weighty jewel of a sun-bound / harkening, reaches (again) the memory / & malady of a doubtable god, part- / unseen, emergent. // On kite wings, we qualify.
Living – Carolyn DeCarlo
Your hands are like fists all the time now. Lick the webbing / between your cats’ toes and wish they could set you right. / Know that they never can.
Emily Stewart
New Year’s Eve Eve I’m not the only mammal living herethe question is star achieverenduring theme I’ve swapped cheese for nutritional yeastnow if you could friends with benefits moviedevelop the courage to ask her where is the cyclonewho is in the hammock easy and natural conversationalisttake into the next world the banned Iranian director Jafar… Continue reading Emily Stewart
aj carruthers
THREE CLIPPED CURTALS I The penances presented śpacious salutationsVersicolor Raghu, piebald inventor League dismay ascetic austerities, virtuously shall opposeExcessive decrepitude, not reft a foeman’s HourDisquieted miseŕliness-unsated-hied; absention from behaviouŕ Three shall abstain from seven,Seven scanńed surprise; thou hermitage thou inćureth minikinRunty dialogue, these of obesiance outspread Piddling infrastructure II Perfect ablution, attainable, connubial Soma-juiceFledged pŕeceptor, Brahmana, buttererRevered disposer… Continue reading aj carruthers
Toby Fitch
Spleen 1 January, pissed off with Sydney, pourssteaming torrents on the lesseesof Camperdown cemetery and mortal dumpson the tenants and landlords of selected suburbs. Tiles offer scant comfort to Minky,her failing back legs splayed out like a frog’sfor maximum chill; tiny Kafkas haunt the hot drains,squeal as they’re turned into ghosts by Raid. A siren… Continue reading Toby Fitch