poetry

Poem for a Murdered Beloved Friend Murdered by a Friend

Comparatively speaking There’s not that many of us In the world

Pacific Women Poets

And now There’s one less

Pacific Woman Poet

This poem Will say What no one has

Our lines Have railed Against Colonialism Capitalism Industrialism Patriarchy

Yet the killer Was among us

One Of Us

This poem could Write lines Tying the crime Scene back to The Devil behind the Devil The evils of every -ism Of oppression The imperialist-political-economic source Of indigenous mental illness

And yet I am left With one image

Her hand Plunging a knife Into the body Of my beloved friend

Again Again Again Again Again Again Again

I do not know How she used the hammer Just that she did

I do not know At what point my friend died Just that she did

I do know That the killer Is haunted In her own mind Forever

That I will never Teach her poems again

That someday I will be Pulled out of this By the lines of the beloved

But for now These are all the lines I have.

source: https://nzpoetryshelf.com/2024/07/03/poetry-shelf-tribute-a-suite-of-poems-for-caroline-sinavaiana-gabbard/ biobibliographical note: selina tusitala marsh (b. 1971) is a poet from new zealand