SIMONE KAHO

 

handsome

 
it looks like every branch stretched across the fence has a noose hanging off it   but it’s
just shadows   heavy leaves looping slim twigs under their weight   we sit in the
courtyard sipping spirits from tin lids   listening to aunties gossip about whether his
head has been embalmed   like their long dead palangi husbands   should one of us
say something   say   he was so young   say   don’t talk about his head he’s upstairs  
not even buried yet   say   let’s talk about his heart and whether that was embalmed  
say   he should be down here with us   sipping spirits at your funerals 
 
 

script

 
i woke this morning to find the bed   had written messages on my undersides in
spidery script   between ink and impression   they started fading immediately   i ran
outside to the lawn and called my name up past the sparrows   to show i knew i’d been
touched   then fell on the grass to read the soles of my feet   they said repeat repeat
repeat   my palms said   hush   my fingers tips said   how   then the writing was gone  
and i curled and uncurled around the oak tree   pressing into the bark 
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Simone Kaho attended the IIML MA in Creative Writing over 2010. She considers the performance of poetry on stage to be as important as its publication on the page and has been invigorated and inspired by watching and performing at the ‘Poetry Live’ open mic in Auckland since 2007. Simone performed at the 2010 Side Stream Poetry Brothel, with Hinemoana Baker at the launch of her second book, Koiwi Koiwi, at the opening of the Aotea Square in Auckland, at Poetry at Our Edge of the Universe, a poetry/music/music event for National Poetry Day 2010, and at Poetry Pick’n’Mix, alongside her classmates.

 

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