Emma Neale
&
For Poppy Haynes
I know some
can’t stand
the ampersand
yet when I see
its curled strand
I remember cellos,
a cellist & the small
upflick flourish
of a finale bow stroke
& the way the coiled thread
mirrors a G-clef’s slopes
so now & then
I try its loose slipknot
which seems to tie
a contented, ready
tone to the page:
a little like the note
you’d hear play
when a young
cellist’s mother
bends above
a borrowed pair
of shiny, lace-up
recital shoes
while she hums
first we do
this loop
&
then we do
this one too
Photo by Caroline Davies
Emma Neale is the author of six novels and six poetry collections. She received the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a Distinguished Contribution to New Zealand Poetry 2020. Her most recent novel, Billy Bird (2016) was short-listed for the Acorn Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award. Her first collection of short stories, The Pink Jumpsuit, has just been released by Quentin Wilson Publishing in 2021. She lives in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, where she works as an editor. ‘&’ was first published by The Listener, a literary magazine in New Zealand, and appears here with permission.