Rome

Rome wasn't built in a day.

But you aren't Rome.

You are Timaru at best.

With expired resource consents

and an impatient local body.

 

So we’ll trudge slow

Along Mount Horrible

With sweaty thumbs and

Nails bitten to the quick.

Together we’ll grab some rope and pick and pick and

 

pull at each thread 

be careful not to get a strand

wound

around your finger 

if it is too tight 

you will cut off the circulation 

and you will lose the ability to grasp

 

make a string of

your teeth

wear them at your first love’s

wedding

paint them gold after a year

and plant them behind the rhubarb

 

you won’t act surprised

when only weeds grow

and the rhubarb goes to seed.

Your soil dry

and the seasons

shrunk

 

till the night

a wrinkled juniper

breaks through dirty halogen

and the neighbours shout

Ukrainian

from their hives

 

Sweet in hail  

breath with 

out any ex

mist en ghosted mass 

that honey lick smell of 

pavement sw(eat) under heel 

under heels

un- do-ur close door 

at foot

 

the flowers are inside              trying to kill you

deliver me         from amateur         stems

etude            to the empty firm             a ment

of petals in the hotel               sink forced            open

By  Jordan Hamel, Aimee-Jane Anderson O'Connor, Melody Wilkinson, Dadon Rowell, Loren Thomas, Hamish Ansley, Liam Hinton, & Tracey Slaughter:

Jordan Hamel

Jordan Hamel (he/him/his) is a Pōneke-based poet and performer. He grew up in
Timaru on a healthy diet of Catholicism and masculine emotional repression. He is the current New Zealand Poetry Slam Champion and has performed at festivals across Aotearoa. He is a poetry editor for Barren Magazine and has work published or forthcoming in MimicryMojave Heart ReviewGhost City PressSalty, and elsewhere.

Aimee-Jane Anderson-O'Connor

Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor was awarded the 2018 Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Prize, and was the co-winner of the 2017 Monash Prize for Emerging Writers. Her work has appeared in a number of literary journals, including StarlingMayhemPoetry New ZealandLandfallMimicry, and Min-a-rets.


Melody Wilkinson

Melody Wilkinson who likes to also go by, Melody May is a PhD candidate at Waikato University. She has been published in Mayhem Literary Journal and her screenplay won the Sam Barn’s Award for excellence. She wants to tell stories for a long time.

Dadon Rowell

Dadon Rowell is a poet and English master's student at the University of Waikato. Her work has featured in Mayhem and the 2019 Poetry New Zealand Yearbook.

Loren Thomas

Loren Thomas is a writer based in the Waikato region. She has previously been published in StarlingPoetry New ZealandMayhem, and brief.

Hamish Ansley

Hamish Ansley is primarily a writer of short prose and the occasional failed poem. He completed a Master's thesis about masculinity in contemporary fiction at the University of Waikato in 2017, and so far has words in Poetry New Zealand and Mayhem. He was longlisted for the 2019 National Flash Fiction Day competition.

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At the edge of a garden