The Friday Poem: ‘of course there are other ways of reading Sharon’ by Liz Breslin

A new poem by Dunedin poet Liz Breslin.

of course there are other ways of reading Sharon

fucking Sharon oy Shaz fuck that lazy
Sharon Sharon a jug get us a jug

the afterhours kitchen smells of hot
chips and Sharon is frying boiled new
potatoes in oil and butter
the way her mother taught her

Sharon doesn’t know she was named for
her mother’s disappeared uncle who came
from that place on the coast

Sharon says that she votes National
Sharon told the nurse she’s giving up the smokes
She even thinks she might

at school the kids called her Shazza
said she was a dead ringer for that
Australian lesbian even though she never
made the netball team

Sharon’s hair is Nordic blonde level nine
and her white stitched indigo boot cut jeans have
extra stretch her arse fantastic from the weekends in
the saddle she’s objectively at least a nine point five

Sharon was top of her class at chemistry

Sharon doesn’t actually give a shit not even one small
shit about the tickets about the live band the spot
prizes or even Mrs McConnell’s fair game pie not even one
small tiny but the smell of his oilskin jacket and who isn’t
in love with their best friend

Sharon has so much love in her life

have you ever heard the nicker
of a horse in the morning over the tickle of hay

Author’s note: The title is a quote from Anita Brady’s The transgendered Kiwi: Homosocial desire and ‘New Zealand identity’. Sharon is the woman behind the bar in the 1990 ‘Deerstalkers Ball’ ad for Speight’s beer.

The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are currently closed.