The Police Officer Told Me
Janet Newman (Massey University, New Zealand)
It was like giving birth
the way
my body took control
the day the police officer told me
my father was dead.
Words
formed in my mind,
my mouth
made animal sounds, snorts,
instinctive growls,
my body sent
wave after wave
of contracting shudders.
All day it took (and all night)
to push out
the hard mewling grief.
It slithers against my skin,
latches to my breast,
drinks from me
its salt, sweet comfort.
Janet Newman lives in Horowhenua. She is a PhD candidate at Massey University with a research topic: “A Tradition of Ecopoetry in New Zealand.” Her poems have been published in journals and e-zines in New Zealand and Australia. She won first prize in the 2015 New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition and was a runner-up in the 2016 Takahe Poetry Competition.
