3rd place winner in the published poets section of the 2020 Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Robert Burns Poetry Competition

Rhythm & Krill

High-heidyin o music festivals

fer gregarious squat lobster

faun i’ the watter

o bonnie Otago Harbour

A colliebuction o crimson

swarmin th muckle stage

shooglin th stage in waves

til heids are buzzled tae th beat

munida gregaria maun dance til ye die

hotchin’ limbs an poppin eyes

‘til the stramash thins oot

Calms doon, becomes een

becomes sharin blankets ‘tween sloggy steen.

Come th morn, hedonism leaves its mark

at the seas side, the draig o tide dyes

the shoormil dark reid. So mony are deid.

Gregarious munida lived afore they died

You’re a lang time deid, they said

as they tried to pairty langer. But this pairty’s ower.

Donnert an loud, th crowds disperse

Worse, th silent are left ahint

baking blind on last nicht’s dance floor.

Gulls, hem-shin’d, shop th shore for fresh meat

Dibber-dabberin, they shit th boatshed pink.