Renee Liang is a second generation Chinese New Zealander, patriotic Aucklander, and occasional paediatrician. She is well known in the Auckland poetry scene as an MC and organiser.
She writes plays, poetry, short fiction and theatre reviews. The poems below were all written in Tokushima, Japan while she was there working on her first novel in Nov/Dec 2008.
Tatami and Wood
Mats
slide soft
sniff and swallow
sounds of things past
of soups and spells and words
flung lengthways
keep their judgement
to themselves.
Wooden floors
are less discerning. Hardened
to dirt and the stuff of spilt dreams,
nonetheless they cry out
as a woman runs
to her lover.
Sonnet
Tonight I will light
a candle for you
flame it from a gas stove,
hold it high to sear
the restless sky. The wind
rolls around laughing
rattling rubbish
pulling clouds down
around its ears.
It doesn’t listen to me
singing happy birthday
a song like ivory
cracked in an empty room
a voice shredded
like old autumn leaves.
Five poems about Auckland
I
a grey clingfilm
swathes the Sky Tower.
apartments lean in
to cradle daffodils
small yellow eyes sleeping.
a giant D frames the sky.
II
rain like sudden laughter
splashes chalk
against bus stops
umbrellas walk
upside-down.
III
stiletto-clattered sidewalks
breathe cappuccino fumes
strum the beating heart
of a man feeding pigeons
in the square.
IV
rub sushi licked salt
into kimchi kebabs smoked
with fish and chip pie
and bubble milk tea. serve with
pizza with everything on top.
V
they say it’s the sun, the blue sky
the lick of pohutakawa flaming up the beach.
I say it’s drinking too much
of the limpid green harbour, sweet
abalone soup.
