blackmail press 34
Emma Currie
New Zealand

spirits of the forest  Vanya Taule'alo
I am a 32yr old poet from Christchurch I have been writing for 17 years and have also studied journalism and animal science. Currently I've finished two years at Hagley Writers Institute. I have been published in The Listener, The Press, The International Literary Quarterly, NZ poetry Collection and other journals here and overseas. I published a book 3 years ago, Confessions of A Broken Doll.
index
Assuming Lady Lazarus


The cabbage tree waved
Without a breath of wind
Who told them I was going?
Lady Lazarus nailed it
On number three
The first decade an accident
The second a misdemeanour
The third she was free.
I too am a scholar, studied death
Like an art
Knowing its language, colours, shapes
It’s abstract intricacy
How an empty pill bottle can
Throw you back up
Like a flailing, screaming new born.
Not here, not here
I always walked upside down
Yearning to be above.