\ntravels light
\ncan rip her gear off quick
\nif she\u2019s interested\u00a0\u00a0 .<\/span>keen for action<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll arrive in a foreign town
\nfriendless\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 homeless
\nfind a flat a job\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 mates
\nfaster than a postcard home<\/p>\n
will nanny for the rich
\nwork behind a bar
\nwaitress\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pick fruit<\/p>\n
cheap flight weekends
\nParis Prague Rome
\nhas slept in airports
\nher back-pack a pillow
\nhitchhikes through Greece<\/p>\n
A good Kiwi girl
\nin four-inch heels
\nif she\u2019s pissed
\nwill arm-wrestle you in a pub
\nIf she\u2019s really pissed
\nshe\u2019ll let you win<\/p>\n
A good Kiwi girl wants
\na double-shot flat white
\nher own back yard
\nwith a feijoa hedge
\nand a lemon tree<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Alexandra Fraser<\/p>\n
A Good Kiwi Girl<\/em> first appeared in the NZ Poetry Society publication a fine line<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The poem is reproduced here with permission.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n About the Poem:<\/strong><\/p>\n A Good Kiwi Gir<\/em>l caught my eye as soon as I saw it featured in\u00a0 a fine line<\/strong> last year—in part because of the title, but also when I read it because I felt it captured something quintessential about so many good Kiwi girls whom I know, as well as the great New Zealand “OE” (“overseas experience”—usually a working holiday.)\u00a0 It has something of an ‘epic’ feel to it, too, that appeals. We go out into the world like lionesses—but always, like Euripides with “the apple tree, the singing, and the gold” there’s the return to the home (part) acre, the feijoa and the lemon tree.\u00a0 A great poem to have as part of my current “Kiwi” and “summer” (respectively) Tuesday Poem focus, and I am grateful to Alexandra for letting me feature it.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Alexandra Fraser<\/p><\/div>\n About the Poet:<\/strong><\/p>\n Alexandra Fraser has been published mostly in NZ journals and anthologies, most recently in InterLitQ 17. Sometimes she lives in Grey Lynn, otherwise resident by a northern beach. She writes poetry when it rains.<\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Good Kiwi Girl A good Kiwi girl wears black travels light can rip her gear off quick if she\u2019s interested\u00a0\u00a0 .keen for action She\u2019ll arrive in a foreign town friendless\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 homeless find a flat a job\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 mates faster than a postcard home will nanny for the rich work behind a bar waitress\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pick fruit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18968"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18988,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968\/revisions\/18988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/AlexandraFraser-150x150.jpg\" "\\"AlexandraFraser\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/TuesPoem.jpg\" "\\"TuesPoem\\"")
<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong>\u2014and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world\u2014either click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.<\/p>\n