Johanna Emeney
Captions
Some of the pages
have empty mountings
still with captions
under their bare grey squares:
FIRST COACH JIM HELPED TO BUILD
TOWNHALL CERTIFICATE-GIVING—
far more mysterious
than those with photos
of MR AND MRS DUNNE AT OURS
and VIOLET ON TINKER,
but less compelling
than the ones labelled ME
just in case anyone wonders
who hid behind a leafy tree,
swung, in a bathing suit,
from ropes attached to the sky,
or peeked out
behind steely-headed MOTHER,
who stands,
arms folded,
in front of a house
called INVICTA.
Jo Emeney is an Auckland poet and teacher. She co-tutors with Rosalind Ali on the Michael King Young Writers’ Programme, and teaches Creative Writing at Massey University. Her collection of poems, Apple & Tree, was published by Cape Catley in 2011. Emeney writes: “The catalyst for ‘Captions’ was an old photograph album with loose pictures and bare mountings.”