ANNA HOEK-SIMS

 

This is not a drill
A January 2025 snapshot

you know I am the best and we are the best country I often tell everyone
I know how great the greatest are and we have everything we are 
smart we have the greatest farmers in the world we could do 
things that are devastating to ensure our amazing country 
comes to a golden age we are the world we just need to  
drill baby drill 

we’re the best we own oil soil spoils gulfs golf courses we run
businesses perfectly we will invent history we’re judged
by morons who don’t know us but they owe us
their lives yes I think we could do things that  
would be severe we could do these things  
severely we just need to drill 

everything we need is me we just need me  
Musk will be perfect in the best c’untry  
he invented deep sky he will invent  
much here let me sell his trucks I  
will buy his truck I’ll get trucks
in sums sums in trucks
let’s drill 

there is I in everything in I in…begins
with T we need energy let’s keep  
the lights shining we’re the best  
we’ll climb high we’ve riches  
even deeper riches we need  
it I’ll richify the rich delight  
the deprived we’re
the best the bestest  
begin drilling 

I will drill – 
drill with might 
it’s my right 
I sign with drills 
sing with drills 
I kibitz snip  
critics knifing 
spirits I’ll 
fix this rig –
I dig inspiring 
slick pimps 
rich bigwigs 
bribing civic 
kingpins
I light glitz 
highlight illicits
I blind crims
with shtick
scribblings
I pinch thighs
tight tits kiss
pink lips
I fight ill will
kill with skill
I drill
I drill
I drill 

Dent de lion

 

Before we begin, the doctors say 
chemo might affect
your teeth 

make my blunt
instruments brittle or cover 
them in rot, might  
in the dry cave of my mouth,
cause the bone to disintegrate
into a volcanic ash that drifts 
down my throat, tars
my lungs and lines
my roiling stomach.  

But my pegs stay  
rooted: my jaws are a lion  
loath to surrender
their prized bones.  

Or perhaps it’s the other reading: 
dandelion. How the flower’s golden head  
is shredded when mown,
but its tap root tooth is harder to kill.
It’s still earthed, 
still growing
its moonlit glow. 

I open wide and roar yellow petals. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna Hoek-Sims is based in Pōneke while studying an MA at the IIML. After travelling overseas, she worked in the book industry which only increased her love of books, tea, and cats.  Anna also enjoys cycling while brainstorming poetry ideas.

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