JANE ARTHUR

 

The Better to See You With, My Dear

 

This apocalypse is more boring  
than Hollywood had prepared me for. 

Yes, I’m scared, but constant worry 
gets tiresome in its own way.  

Part of the end 
of the world is watching people claim 

there comes a time when we should 
let happen

the things that are going to happen.  
I want to mess with the space

time continuum, I want to shout, 
But what if it doesn’t have to! and

fuck with the future just because. 
Just because I don’t want to go out

in this horrifying slow-burning blaze. 
Let me die normally or not at all. 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane Arthur is a Pōneke-based poet, children’s writer, editor and bookshop co-owner. Her first collection, Craven (VUP), won the 2020 Jessie Mackay Prize for best first book at the Ockham NZ Book Awards. She has another collection forthcoming in 2023.