Bronwyn Bryant

Bronwyn Bryant is a poet, journal writer and tutor who lives in Botany Downs, Auckland. In 1999 she took a year out from real life to attend the Creative Writing Course at Whitireia, Porirua Polytechnic, where she discovered a passion for poetry. Along with fellow Whitireia graduate, Jenny Clay, she has run poetry workshops across Auckland and produced desktop publications of the poetry produced at those workshops. She has been published in Tongue in Your Ear, Kokako, Nga Maunga Korero, The Island Breeze, Manukau in Poetry, Poetry Aotearoa and Takahe.

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Advice to a Dinner Date

Half a glass of wine

and I am drunk

a full glass

I'm asleep.

If you want sex

buy me dessert.

Wearing Purple

Clothes the colour

of lavender scent

the throat of the iris

or the voice of the jazz singer

of wave turn

of moon circle

of bird feather shimmer

you must be a lesbian

said the deputy principal

Everyone Leaves a Trail

Everyone leaves a trail, said the tracker

no matter where you go, or how,

we'll find you, always.

Walking backwards through grass

won't fool us. The leaves will point

to the direction you take.

I live in a small country

speak with a loud voice

have dropped opinions on the way.

And nail clippings, haircuts

tonsils, appendix, a womb

double D breasts, a chunk of thigh.

Does this disgust you?

It hasn't been all bad.

I've made a difference.

There is a boy who can read

a girl who loves Maths

a woman writing stories of her life.

The smell of home made soup

lingers in the air, and bread

and a spicy fruit loaf.

There are leaves of paper

full of words that only I

could have written.

You can find me

easily

if you want to.