blackmail press 33
Rebekah Burgess
New Zealand

Tui Taonga 1-5 Penny Howard
Previously been published in Blackmail Press issues 11, 28 and 32.
Performed spoken word at Wellington's BlueNote and Ballroom Cafe.
Had a poem published in Manawatu Standard this year.

Set up a poetry blog, but that is currently private and under review (an upcoming chapbook may suffice. Children of the '80s are suspicious of the cloud).


index
For Andy


1

The moment of falling was indeed falling
and if you were caught
you’d think that would be it, solved.
Not as simple as that for a broken
up human with shatters and shards
of heart that got crunched into concrete.
Pick the pieces up. Don’t be scared if they cut
our hands. Blood is a glue of life. A metaphor.
A comparison. A CONNECTOR.
Pain is necessary to regenerate.

2

After all I asked for it.
I didn’t want a boring,
comfortable partner.
I wanted a challenge.
I wanted a knife.
I wanted to be cut open.
I wanted to feel.
I wanted to heal.
I wanted to live.

3

SHINY FAMILY.

Absurdity of children in a train.
And I think I am in love
with you already.
But you challenge me,
but I wouldn’t want a whipping
boy,
how about some contradictions
human two-faced minds
that change again for a while.
The Taupo air. The birds
the fresh no drama

the drama
still there
a chatter
but not as loud
surely knowing that
you are you
is enough for me
without worrying
about societal
prejudices
of madness.