Audacity
Rawiri Nicholls (University of Waikato)
you spoke endlessly
about how you loved your girlfriend
& were going to marry her
as you studied together
//
thinking back; you were so full of yourself
you knew i was poly but we had never spoken
about the possibility of opening your relationship
or if i had any interest in being your experimentation
//
you must have thought i was dumb
if you even thought at all
sometimes i wonder
if there was even room with your ego
you tried to kiss me
literally out of nowhere
when we were drinking with friends
//
our lips may have touched
but my eyes remained wide
locked with the room’s
i can’t even remember
the texture of your lips
it was all a blur
//
you told us all
how it was a joke
i don’t know if your girlfriend knew
or even knows now
but perhaps that black eye helped.
Rawiri Nicholls is a takatāpui poet based in Kirikiriroa Aotearoa studying their Master of Professional Writing at the University of Waikato.
