{"id":29612,"date":"2015-07-14T19:47:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T07:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=29612"},"modified":"2015-07-14T19:47:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T07:47:25","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-at-night-my-dead-mother-appears-wanting-soup-by-frankie-mcmillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/07\/14\/the-tuesday-poem-at-night-my-dead-mother-appears-wanting-soup-by-frankie-mcmillan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: “at night my dead mother appears wanting soup” by Frankie McMillan"},"content":{"rendered":"

at night my dead mother appears wanting soup<\/span><\/p>\n

I search the town for ox tails
\neven the movie houses<\/p>\n

there\u2019s Clint Eastwood placing
\na bridle on his horse<\/p>\n

I need a bit of guidance, I say
\nand he turns to doff his hat<\/p>\n

the way cowboys do and I ask
\nthe approximate whereabouts<\/p>\n

of the nearest ox
\nand he hands me a pistol<\/p>\n

you can do this, <\/em>he says
\nso now I\u2019m in charge<\/p>\n

of a Colt but how to load
\nor fire and time is running out,<\/p>\n

you see light leak around the edges
\nthe way you might if trussed up<\/p>\n

in a haybarn, your eyes fixed
\ntowards the door, somewhere<\/p>\n

a gramophone playing,
\nall the good husbands dancing<\/p>\n

with their wives and your mother
\nin the doorway with her bowl<\/p>\n

you do what you can \u2013 hunger
\nmerits our grief<\/p>\n

if only you\u2019d paid attention
\nat the movies, if only you\u2019d learned<\/p>\n

how to shoot those ox
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Frankie McMillan<\/p>\n

‘at night my dead mother appears wanting soup’<\/em> was Highly Commended in the NZ Poetry Society (NZPS) International Competition 2014 and subsequently published in the NZPS anthology Take Back Our Sky<\/strong> (2014.)<\/p>\n

Reproduced here with permission.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"NoHorsesCover\"<\/a>About the Poem:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I am currently engaged\u00a0 in the process of re-posting poets who have had multiple poems featured here on \u201c\u2026Anything, Really\u201d <\/em>, or by me on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/a>, since I joined the Tuesday Poem community in June 2010.<\/p>\n

Today I am delighted to continue featuring the \u201cunique and insightful\u201d (Beatties Bookblog) poetry of Frankie McMillan. I featured this poem earlier this year, on The Tuesday Poem Hub<\/a>, which you should check out if you would like to read a fuller commentary. But it\u2019s nonetheless a pleasure to have the opportunity to highlight both it, and Frankie, again today.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

About The Poet:<\/h3>\n

Frankie McMillan<\/strong> is the author of The Bag Lady\u2019s Picnic and other stories<\/strong>,<\/em> and a poetry collection, Dressing for the Cannibals<\/em><\/strong>. In 2005 she was awarded the Creative NZ Todd Bursary. In 2008 and 2009 her work was selected for the Best NZ Fiction<\/strong> anthologies. Other awards include winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition (2009) and the NZ National Flash Fiction award (2013). In 2014 she held an Ursula Bethell writing residency at Canterbury University. Her second book of poetry, There Are No Horses in Heaven<\/em><\/strong> was published by Canterbury University Press in March, 2015.<\/p>\n

Very recently, Frankie both won and also took third place in the National Flash Fiction competition. You can read all about it here: A National Flash Fiction Heroine: Congratulating Frankie McMillan<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"TuesPoem\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

at night my dead mother appears wanting soup I search the town for ox tails even the movie houses there\u2019s Clint Eastwood placing a bridle on his horse I need a bit of guidance, I say and he turns to doff his hat the way cowboys do and I ask the approximate whereabouts of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29612","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=29612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29613,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29612\/revisions\/29613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}