LAP-DOG LUCK
She kills me, she really does
Like I am like an ant parade on a hot hot day
And she is a bad bad boy, with a magnifying glass.
I know I’m not really a survivalist
It’s just that I enjoy taking up arms, counting my weapons -
My weapons being.................um........and
My arms being...........um........................and
Me being....so....................unrehearsed
That at my first skirmish I throw everything down
Into a.....well
And crawl off to some horrid hovel, where I just lay down
And don’t even leak good art.
Meanwhile, in the real world
She’s taking out my enemies
With something sharp
She never showed me.
Charles Ross grew up next to a tidal estuary in Waitati - just on the north side of Otepoti Dunedin - and now resides in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington as a first year student at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University. He was a finalist in both the 2023 and 2024 National Schools Poetry Competition, as well as the winner of the year twelve category in the 2023 Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook.