Angela Costi - The Relationship

Costi LE P&W Vol 1 Nov-Dec 2026

Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume One Nov-Dec 2026.

The Relationship by Angela Costi.

When she first brought me into her rooms she said, welcome home. But everything about her home is not my home. I hate myself for feeling ungrateful as I was birthed in a sludge of fire and debris, trapped and zapped into isolation, injected with iron, mined with bomb and drill, torn from rock, shackled and traded by heartless wallets, slapped with price to finally come to rest by her pink-tassel, bedside lamp.

Each night, after she brushes, flosses, stretches, sips chamomile tea, pops a pill or two or three, she places me in the cradle of her palm, and says,

I call upon the highest vibration of unconditional love
to fill this Amethyst, may it radiate spiritual light
strengthen my core
to receive healing.

And I oblige. I muster my crystals to send forth sparkles. Her eyes seem to get larger as if they are homeless and unfed. They hunger for my purple glow. They stare at me for seven minutes (according to her timer). Their energy is made from panic and despair, I can sense their oscillation from blue to grey to teal. I can feel her pupils deepen with darkness. Our energies wrestle in the space between her nose and my highest point. I’m exhausted by the time she places me back on her bedside table. Switches off the lamp. Gets into her bed.

After she stops fighting with the blanket and sheets, my crystals emit a silent sigh as they huddle in the solace of night. This is the precious time for me to focus on what is left of me. I forget about the grit and dust lurking in my crevices. I shine remnants and make them glow wild violet. I am writing to my mother in the only way I know how.

Angela Costi’s poetry collections include Honey & Salt, An Embroidery of Old Maps and New, and The Heart of the Advocate. Her chapbook, Adversarial Practice, published by Cordite was commended in the Wesley Michel Wright Prize 2024. She won the University of Canberra’s Health Poetry Prize 2024, the Katherine Sussanah Prichard (KSP) Poetry Prize 2022 and has been placed or shortlisted in a number of prizes, including the Newcastle Poetry Prize 2026. Over the years, her poems, micro fiction, essays and other creative writing have found homes in literary and academic journals.

Angela Costi – The Relationship

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