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Plum
Helen Heath (IIML, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
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The door pushing open, rubs against thick carpet
wakes me
shhh, …..he says.
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*
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In the quiet of plum tree leaves I’m hidden
like a smear of blackbird shit.
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The corrugated iron fence flakes dry-blood paint.
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Fingering the pale crescent above my knee.
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*
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Shh, shhh
shhhhhhh.

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*
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The bark is rough.
I am in the eye of a blackbird.
I could live in this tree, eating plums for a week.
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*
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Father points his air rifle out the laundry window.
Pop…..a blackbird…..pop…..another.
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Helen Heath is writing her first book of poetry for her MA at Victoria University. Helen has been published in JAAM, Poetry NZ, Turbine, Glottis and 4th Floor. Helen lives and works in Paekakariki with her partner and two children. She blogs at: http://showyourworkings.wordpress.com/ and http://helensquared.wordpress.com/.
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