LISA STANLEY

 

We accept poems in Samoan provided they are translated into English.

 

 

english words cross the moana from the earth 
                                                                             of my belly 

i chose this  

some are holding their breath    in heavy shipping containers  

others are holding 
to ankles of puna’e  

on island    my feet have not stood  

others are  

drifting  

like  

unanchored  

buoys  

a poem has made the  

BORDER  

t’will be published in an  

  English  

Journal  

yeh all bets r  

  hedging  

if they all made it  
what would be left of me?  

whole  
foetus  
fallen 
from  
coconut 
tree?  

would my shell be hard enough to land? 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa Stanley (samoan/pākehā) is an emerging poet based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has poems published and forthcoming in Yellow Lamp Poetry, Tarot, takahē, Landfall Tauraka, Moonflake Press, and more. Her poem, afakasi māmā, was selected for Poem of the Month in October 2024 by the New Zealand Poetry Society Te Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa. Find her @lisastanleywrites.

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