blackmail press 28
Nicole Wallace                           New Zealand

index
Kitchen - Charles Olsen
Seeing Marcus Lush

hot sun, black beach
black beach, rough waves
black jersey brigade
red, yellow, green scarves
dreadlock and ganja gang
Mum, Dad, 2.5 kids, wild kites
surfer boys surfing

solitary Heathcliff,
brooding and gruff from Bluff
lone sentinel
sitting dark, clichéd melancholic
black beach, rough waves
black stove pipes
bird's nest hair spiking
Too much a chicken broth boy
for me -
should read
handle with care

stared a second too long
saw dark eyes cloud
a storm threatening
on a hot clear day
on a black beach
Marcus Lush
at Piha. Strangely fitting.




Nicole Wallace lives in South Auckland.  She won the Bernard Gadd Memorial Poetry Prize in 2009.