The Penitent Ring by Charmaine Thomson

Ne

me

quitte

pas, he sings

feeding the breadstick

To the young woman opposite

Wasting time with father time, mesmerized by his hands

The bared throat and sling backs say, I don’t mind, you are still young at heart.

At the next table it’s all about the marina

with vain traces of a lush life.

But it is too late

For this dress

and this

gold

ring.

Equilibrium by Charmaine Thomson

I

can’t

find it

anywhere.

Equilibrium:

completely annihilated

The sinful wreckage of wardrobe survivors burning

Colliding in three dimensions

Beating gravity

Holding back

until

it

stops

Arohata by Charmaine Thomson

They stripped the hills bare

Leaving only the compound

stretching for the sun

The pines held the prisoners

And played them muted

lullabies, chasing the past away

They left the clay banks

Unfinished and untidy

as an added punishment  

Arohata is a women’s prison in Wellington, New Zealand.  Arohata means “the bridge” in Maori and indicates a wish to provide a bridge between past offending and a future in the wider community.