Louise Wallace
Cinema
just before
the corner down
the stairs
is a woman
kneeling
on the dirty
floor her fore-
head kissing
the crimson
carpet
and the world
is going
on
outside a bus
drives past
a man wanting
it to stop
his two
arms cross
one another
signalling deep
distress
Bad things
No one can imagine
how bad things must be.
They sprout
in the dark, damp folds of my mind.
They grow there —
a forest of tiny umbrellas.
They flourish —
a crown of terrible heads.
Louise Wallace is a New Zealand poet, the author of two collections of poetry published through Victoria University Press. Louise was writer-in-residence for 2015 at the University of Otago, Dunedin. Her work has previously appeared in Meanjin, Landfall, Snorkel and Sport as well as anthologies The Best of Best New Zealand Poems and Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page.