Hills, Hills

Natasha Dennerstein Click to read more...

DennersteinNatasha Dennerstein completed her Masters in Creative Writing at Victoria University, Wellington in 2011. Her poetry has been published in Landfall, Snorkel, Turbine, 4th Floor and other journals in print and online. She has a completed novel-in-verse manuscript in the process of publication. She is currently working on a series about bones and skulls in collaboration with Australian painter Kaye Freeman and also on a series of poems around the theme of cinema history. Some of her work can be seen on her Facebook page, Natasha Dennerstein Poetry.

Audio of Hills, Hills
you yellowgreen
hills roll seductively
in the early morning

light
you appear
in folds of earthflesh

and undulate
in the early afternoon
like buttocks

in olivedrab
army pants fatigued
at sundown

I want to wander
through your crevices
at the crack of dawn you

acid lemonlime/kiwifruit
regurgitated grass
lamb belly hills

damn you for making
me remember my
military lover

you blanc
you Sauvignon
hills



Note: I wrote “Hills, Hills” recently with Shenandoah in mind as I didn’t have anything quintessentially New Zealandish. I wanted to capture a particular color spectrum of green/yellow that occurs here in our harsh antipodean light. The “military lover” intruded and sprang from the idea of army fatigue-clad buttocks and wouldn’t go away. Because of this, I jammed all those color words together near the end, by “happy accident” or otherwise. The style of pared down, unpunctuated poetry is a departure for me and one that I am happy with. So thanks, Shenandoah!

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