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The Morning after You Had Gone

I woke to small silences

and entered them, it would seem

they had always been there.

Dark matter, lightning.

I missed your conversation

I had missed it for a long time.

There was a quiet tension

written in my muscles and tendons,

pumping in my veins towards my heart.

It is always so mysterious

how we come, how we go.

© Victoria Broome 2019

“In Victoria Broome’s long-awaited first collection of poems, against the darkly-lit gloss of past and present Christchurch, Mum and Dad whirl in a dance at The Latimer. Myra and Cissy pose in Cathedral Square, Myra in a white hat, gloves and pearls, and Cissy: ‘All I needed was one good frock.’

A little girl goes fishing with a knitting needle and a length of wool and a little boy makes aviaries out of tea chests for his canaries. There are lines here that wring the heart with hurt and loss. And lines that reassert hope and the prospect of healing. A lovely opening psalm locates us inside life: ‘Eyes that will find you / a throat that will let you sing / ears that listen for the sound of mercy.’ And as for death, here we go, ‘Back in time, forward in time / until you are tucked up again and uterine.’

Victoria Broome has a richly engaging voice. It has

been well worth the wait.” ––Bernadette Hall

Victoria Broome has been published in various journals and anthologies. She was awarded the CNZ Louis Johnson Bursary in 2005, and in 2008 and 2009 attended the Hagley Writers Institute. She has twice been placed highly commended in the Kathleen Grattan Award (2010 and 2015). How We Talk to Each Other is her first collection.