and her surgeon leaves stirrups
obstetric forceps and his axe
in the bath now the sardine
must be buried she no longer
hears the conversation of street lamps
instead everything that began in water
from the ash cross
on her tiny metallic forehead
to the white oil of her empty belly
becomes the silver of dust
that most mornings
bows to a long slow car
Kerrin P. Sharpe
Kerrin P. Sharpe lives in Christchurch, New Zealand where she is a poet and a teacher of creative writing. She has published in NZ, Australia and England. Her first collection, Three Days in a Wishing Well, has just been published by Victoria University Press.
Some of the poems published in the Anthology previously appeared in Best New Zealand Poems, Takahe, Turbine and Sport and she has a forthcoming poetry selection in Oxford Poets 2013.
Kerrin P. Sharpe's website »