Schematic poetics by Tate Fountain
Red
5E1914.
Three girls at a table in the Market Bar with an overpriced jug of sangria.
Sometimes words are enough. Sometimes memory isn’t.
EA3C53.
All I am is a double-edged sword
/ wanting and wanting and wanting
8C1717.
“Don’t worry—you can’t even tell. It’s just a little scar. A scarlet, even.”
or
THE/SCARLET/LETTER
[ Drop the ‘the’ […] it’s cleaner ]
SCARLET/LETTER
SCAR/LET/TER
SCAR/LET/TERRIBLE/THINGS/HAPPEN/WHEN/YOU/MAKE/HUNCHES/
IN/CLUEDO/BASED/ON/WHICH/CHARACTER/YOU’RE/
ATTRACTED/TO
or [cont’d from top]
“Does that make Hamlet a small ham? A hamlet?”
“I hate you for this.”
“Does it depend on who’s playing him?”
“Who’s playing ham, you mean?”
“God, I love it when you participate!” [etc.]
BE2625, D21F3C, F2473F.
I wonder who I will love in ten years. I hope I’m alive. I hope I’m eating well.
I hope there is fruit in summer and joy forever.
FF0800.
You’re too sweet to me, baby.
[ You’re stifling my skin. ]
B43757, B80F0A, C10A36.
springtime crimson lines my great-grandparents’ driveway
we sell the house; we leave the coast
someone, somewhere, does floral baking / hibiscuits
710C04.
(Death may be the end of life but it is not the end of love.)
(I know because I have a little brother.)
5E1914.
“So, comparatively, ignoring bastardisation of language and reliance on accents for comedy, who would you say of the three of us is
SANGRY
SANGRIA
SANGRIEST
and why?”
Yellow
FCDC3B, F3E88E, EDCB62, E3CF57, D6C537 et al.
[ still life of a fruit bowl ]
F8E473 & D2B55B.
Imagine we are sitting in darkness and love each other
in some nerve-wracking, unspoken way.
Shall I tell you about the crush I had when I was fourteen?
Where I was living at the time and the instrument the person played?
The fact they didn’t notice me?
Will you be jealous?
Will the corners of your mouth give you away?
DAA520.
SAVE THE BEES & KILL YOUR DARLINGS
LONG, SLENDER / YELLOW-RAYED BLOSSOMS
/ SWEET PERFUME / ONE-SIDED INFLORESCENCE
&
LONG, SLENDER / BLOSSOMS
/ SWEET / ONE-SIDED
&
/ ONE-SIDED
SAVE THE BEES & KILL YOUR DARLINGS
FEE5AC.
It’s a love song, whether you hear it or not.
It’s the sight of your shoes in my home.
FCD12A.
[2018] A riverside lunch with my mother.
We are learning once again /
how to be around each other.
FCDC3B.
[
the summer before the world transformed
I bought and ate several fresh pineapples
I pulled them apart, hexagon by hexagon
I cut them open, took a knife to the sides
every new love is sweet and refreshing
(and I don’t know how to do it without hurting myself)
the thing about pineapples is the bromelain
the reciprocal digestion / the enzyme and the tender skin
every new love will tear you apart
right where your lips meet their corners ]
Blue
7EB6FF & 87CEEB.
Carry me downstream / Carnival Baptiste
Lovers amidst myosotis
Benevolent weather / I hope you remember
Likewise I hope I don’t notice
75A1D0, 3A66A7, 6495ED, 5A4FCG, B7C3D0 et al.
My stockings, my studies, those berries, those books;
the bus to your house, the bus that I took—well, one of the buses;
well, both. A shade each. A bouquet. Cornflowers. Irises—
Veronica. Drain cleaner.
And the diner.
And the light.
(Each room full of a NEW BLUE HUE.)
And the gallery.
739AC5, 0276FD, 3333FF, 4D6FAC.
O Vincent
O Georges
O—NO P**** P****** on account of
the bleeding.
(Though, yes, Elizabeth, on account of the blood.)
O Jackson
[ ], [ ].
Not your eyes, and not mine either.
3B3178.
I wore my favourite dress that day. Your sweet treat and my whole heart in my hand.
7EB6FF.
myosotis
Tate Fountain is a writer, director, actor, and academic, currently studying at the University of Auckland. Her work has been published most recently in Starling, The Niche, and on NZ Poetry Shelf. She likes abstract art, the Paddington movies, and getting caught in the rain.