MANON REVUELTA 

 

Paula

 
Tells me that in Barcelona 
the fleas had breakfast lunch and tea 
 
and that is why 
there is a tiny red ellipsis on her wrist. 
 
She puts her fingers on the table in the light 
turns to me and says 
with big-tooth-smile that: 
 
earthly desires are the key to enlightenment. 
 
* 
 
See the clean grey soles of her feet 
and her small head of thatched hair 
she lies jetlagged on the couch 
not long before the church bells wake her. 
 
She cried when she saw 
a pile of dead people’s shoes 
she cried when she saw the scenery 
 
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Manon Revuelta is an eighteen-year-old student living in Auckland City, originally from Waiheke Island. She was the recipient of the New Zealand Post National Schools Poetry Award this year, and has a fondness for marmite and avocado on toast.