Kirsten Le Harivel
Tension
You are sometimes the screech and the whisper
of the train running off along the tracks.
Occasionally, the flash of emergency sirens,
definitely the bell on the barricade,
always the beat-beat of solitary
high heels on concrete.
It is late at night. You bang out a rhythm about money,
interspersed with a still about my outfit
and who deserves what.
Then there’s that gaping silence.
Kirsten Le Harivel is a writer, poet and organiser and the Oceania Director of Kahini, an international literary arts organisation. Her work has appeared in various New Zealand and international literary journals. She completed an MA at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2013.