Paper wings
Claire Orchard (IIML, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
The paper artist is folding cranes,
precision creasing
origami paper squares
printed with geometric shapes
into bright, kimono-robed birds.
The birds nest together
on the coffee table, rustling
to each other: when will she stop?
Five cranes means a sudden
shaft of sunlight,
ten, a day of sunshine
in the middle of this long winter,
a thousand and she will
have her dearest wish.
No, not the impossible one.
That
is beyond
two thousand paper wings.
Claire Orchard grew up in the Hutt Valley and now lives with her family in Wellington. She has a BA in English from Massey University and is currently completing an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) at Victoria University of Wellington. Her writing has been published in Penduline Press, the 2012 Eat Your Words anthology, and she has work appearing in upcoming issues of JAAM and 4th Floor.
