blackmail press 22
Vaughan Rapatahana
New Zealand

I am Kiwi, who lives and works in Hong Kong, although we keep our house back in Te Araroa, East Coast. My latest book series is entitled English Through Poetry (2007) and is out in the U.K., Australia, and Aotearoa.
Kia ora ano,
Vaughan Rapatahana

To Shu Li in December

I’m

missing

you,
and
it’s

merely

Wednesday.


outside

jing cha
sirens
justly
deride
this

selfish
sent
i
ment

&

the sky’s
not
taking
sides.


discipline Li
is

SHOUTING

snidely
at some

doomed

junior
suspect

- had

no

break
fast –

mind
absent,


while
the sun
preens
itself
in
smoggy
mirrors,

and won’t
make up
its
mind.


the

other

staff
room

cometscollide

in
their

own
elliptic

gambits,

brains
and
mouths
a
s
k
e
w,

&


I’m
stalled
in
a
corner

box;

the show pony,
perhaps,


as
I
yearn for
your

presence,

enough
to
fret

about

tomorrow…





Thoughts of you

thoughts of you
                         keep me warm;


there is

no

snow
                          here,


yet chill

                                          drifts
                        e
                      s   
                     i
                   r

sufficient.

that brisk
dank
damp,
inchoate
within,

a
smirk-
        smothering
demon,

&

as
those
wicked
sleet sheets
                 disagree

outside,

thoughts of you
sustain
         me


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