(Dr) Jeni Curtis teaches English at St Andrew’s College, Christchurch, New Zealand. She is President of the Christchurch branch of the Dickens Fellowship, and editor of their magazine, Dickens Down Under. She has published poems in the Christchurch Press and International Literature Quarterly. She is currently enrolled in the Hagley Community College Writers Course.
In the Margins
You are the edge of the white page
The edge of the page striped with blue lines
Regular, uniform
You escape that
Liminal, the border patrol
You regulate
Enumerate
It is your tally that counts off
Their sins, their tabulations
Or a random ticking off
Scribbled annotation to the main text
In red pen
You tell them how to punctuate their lives
Spapsentence structure
You dwell in the edges of the printed page
White space
Annotator
You put the gloss on others’ words
Jupiter Elucidator
The polish on the argument
While you lurk
Not lost for words
No margin for error
Along the boundaries, beyond the pale
Alone on the threshold
