The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Johanna Aitchison’s “is anybody in there?”
is anybody in there?
The sun hits the tips of waves in Lyall Bay, the big wing, your
sunglasses as you fly into Wellington again. The blow of water,
the salt salt water, would taste like lips after chips & chips.
In the last two years you’ve taken to tearing out pages of your
diary and sending them off in screwtop white wine bottles.
You drop them in rivers, the names of which you forget almost
immediately on hearing the splash.
Your mother says, ‘you should brush your hair.’ You say, ‘I’m
33.’ She runs into the house & returns, holding out a plastic
comb. She slams the car door and starts stabbing at the air,
trying to reach your hair.
.
© Johanna Aitchison
from A Long Girl Ago, Victoria University Press, 2007
Reproduced with permission
—
I am currently reposting previously featured poems from poets who have have more than one poem on “…Anything, Really.”
To read my original commentary on is anybody in there and a bio of Johanna Aitchison, please click here.
To check out the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.