The Friday Poem: ‘Dampening’ by Zora Patrick
We conclude our week-long series on New Zealand poetry with the winning poem of the 2017 national schools poetry award: ‘Dampening’, by Wellington High School Year 12 student Zora Patrick.
Dampening
Playing dead in the
seeming shallows
a man floats face down
estranged from the
crying children
and
bikini grandmas.
He looks at seaweed
through his snorkel mask,
lacy fronds
reaching up
to hold him in their midst.
Occasionally,
he plunges his head
into the water
feet sticking up like a frog’s
or
straight out into the air for everyone to see.
As his feet sink, his trunks
and the small of his back
resurface.
“I’m still here,”
they say.
Zora Patrick will be reading her work alongside other poets at the launch of the latest issue of online journal Starling today at 10.45am at Vic Books on the campus of Victoria University in Wellington.
The Spinoff Review of Books is brought to you by Unity Books
Zora Patrick
Zora Patrick is a Year 12 student of Wellington High School. She won first place in the 2017 International Institute of Modern Letters’ (IIML) National Schools Poetry Award, and was awarded $500. Zora was born in the US in 2001.
