B.
Beauty by Sarah Maindonald
Note
Sarah Maindolnald reads her own poem, Beauty, written in response to the exhibition Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
Beauty
slivers of glorious colour wound around
her fat brown neck
lying languid against glistening skin
the heat made it shimmer and shimmy
her abundant body swayed
followed moves
a hundred years’ old
her hands wove stories
lovers
adversaries
villains
they dance from her fingers
run down her luscious, plump arms
surrender to her cleavage
slide down her belly
some are eaten by ‘wild dogs’
some make it further past
the gates of paradise
zig
zagging
down
her
thighs
to her pointed
toes
where they bound
into the haze
the coloured fragments of her necklace
float off her neck
spin into the future…