The Thaw
I shivered under the dark sky, eyes quick with tears, watching as strangers piled sticks on bonfires and laughed like normal people. You’d left a drafted letter open and I’d ...
The Superhero I Didn’t Want To Be
Trigger warning: family violence I was four years old. We lived in a little bungalow with a huge garden full of neatly trimmed roses. Mum is good at maintaining roses. ...
Learning to be Let Down
Trigger warning: family violence Psychologists say we search out similar situations to those we experienced as children. Scenarios which bring out similar emotions and allow us to reenact all those unresolved ...
I am Māori
“You’re whiter than I am!” He/she/they say as they hold their tanned arm up to my pale limb. “What are you anyway, a 64th or something?” It’s why it took ...
The Things I Used to Do
Writing this may make it seem too real. These are things I have not visited for a long time, these thoughts and actions have lived in a separate place I ...
Boys Will Be… Held Accountable for their Actions
My husband rang me yesterday. An incident at school he said. A boy pulled our daughter’s pants down. In front of a group of other children. He put me on ...