Live Encounters Aotearoa New Zealand Poets & Writers March 2026
Why do you think? poems by Kate Kelly.
Why do you think?
Why do you think that I need you?
Whatever.
Why do you think this?
I see the way you look at me.
I hear you.
I do.
“Are you sure you don’t want to have sex?”
Under your breath.
I heard that.
Are you aware that there are security cameras in the lift as you brush past
with that smile on your face?
Arsehole do you think that your 6 children and your wife would be proud
of you?
All I have to do is wave at the ceiling
Push the green button on my radio.
They will come. Unlike me in your presence.
Master Control will come. Unlike me.
Untitled
Tupuna, Tupuna, Tupuna
Atua, Atua, Atua
I learnt a lot in the prison.
To listen to the Taonga
Taonga being the Prisoners
Taonga being the stories, I was told, by strangers.
One who appeared out of nowhere,
Then disappeared.
A Rangatira hung for murder not committed
Buried upright so he would not rest.
He will never see a Christmas
He is with his Tupuna
Other’s dug up in the 80’s
With a Tohunga pointing at the ground
Then Karakia in the Bay of Plenty for reburial.
Now – the Prisoners will not see the Sun they will have to call on their Tupuna
For many, only survival is imperative
Chicken and Tupuna on the day
On Rangitoto see the roads, built by Mt. Eden Prisoners by hand.
Scoria, 5 degrees hotter than Auckland city
The playground of day trippers at summertime.
Ham and Christmas perhaps?
Tupuna, Tupuna, Tupuna
Atua, Atua, Atua
What does Tapu mean these days?
Loss Series #4
So you threw yourself out of your window
I really wish you’d gotten on a plane and come and seen us.
We could have made you cups of tea
We could have given you hugs and taken you to the beach.
The NZ beaches are just as nice as Cornwall you know.
So you threw yourself
You loved sport as a Woman and as a child.
Nothing like a bit of tennis on the lawn
So you threw
I wish.
© Kate Kelly
Kate Kelly has always loved language. She believes that the written word can be powerful. English is not her birth language, which is Irish, which she is yet to learn. She feels lucky to have learnt English, in all its hypocrisy. Communication with others is a gift.