blackmail press 26
Shirley Deuchrass
New Zealand

index
from: Angipanis of the Abanimal People - Andy Leleisi'auo
The mountain at our feet

bone chilling cold floats the air south

when it comes we’re reminded
of limitations, an unspoken
heaviness that throws long shadows

peaks are coated in white
look pure, he thinks
  delicate as a virgin

draw him closer

an aria belts from the radio
  a woman’s voice
calling
  boldly calling

the climber presses his feet
  into mountain secrets
listens to the silence
  of the earth waking

opens his soul to the maiden
  whose wings shroud
     a Siren’s song

& his courage breaks




Rhythm

rain drums through the day
from south to north
weeping into rivers

wayward Oystercatchers are
testament to another season
past

somewhere far off
on the Côte d’Azur
a child kicks the sand till it squeals
others laze about as if the sea 
belongs to them

at home, bold music 
thunders against the coastline 
rocks hum with another tide

a boat on the horizon
sits and sinks, sits and sinks
the dark rhythm of waiting
reminds me we barely breathe
before we’re gone.





Shirley Deuchrass’s poems have been published in journals such as Poetry New Zealand, Takahe, Blackmail Press, as well as newspapers (Otago Daily Times,  the Bay of Plenty Times), and she has also been included in an "Arrow Anthology".