The Friday Poem: ‘Ali dies of cancer and I am not allowed to visit’ by Lily Holloway
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A new poem by Lily Holloway.
Ali dies of cancer and I am not allowed to visit
Anxious in small groups, tetras will start nibbling
at their tank-mates. I never see it happening.
No piece of fin floating up, no bone stark
against the charcoal filter. They must be
swimming in it, though, in the parts
of once shimmering bodies. Atoms
of eye or tail rushing through
gills. It’s a quiet horror,
waking up to
find there’s
only one
left.
If only
death gently
revealed itself
like a magic trick
or godwit migration.
We could say she is gone now
because the world was anxious to take
her back into itself and as a child I would
understand, I am proof enough of what remains.
Better to have left in the night than be pulled apart.
Better a ghost ship than to rip at twin bodies in the dark.
The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are now being accepted until 31 January 2023. Please send up to three poems in a Word or PDF document to chris@christse.co.nz.
Lily Holloway
Lily Holloway is a powerlifting enthusiast and third-year MFA candidate at Syracuse University. They are a 2024 winner of the Griffith Review Emerging Voices competition and placed second in the 2024 Black Warrior Review Poetry Competition. You can find their work published or forthcoming in various places including Black Warrior Review, Sundog Lit, Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems, Peach Mag, and Hobart After Dark. Their chapbook was published in 2021 as a part of Auckland University Press' AUP New Poets 8. Find them on Twitter and Instagram @milfs4minecraft or through their website lilyholloway.co.nz.
