Aro Valley

I want to take
your picture.
The silver blue
mist moving
over the pine trees,
the Edwardian houses
running backwards
up the hillside,
the road running
slower than myself.
The sky a kind of
silver screen,
the moon is out tonight.
A neon TV.
A noticeboard.
The buttery light
melting out of the chip shop
into the indigo air.
The weeds tripping up
the fences, the flowers
tripping up the weeds.
The night about to settle
in for the night.
But pausing before
it closes the door.
relax. I think you look
just wonderful.
I imagine you can tell
I want to take your picture.

This summer

What you notice most about
this summer
are the dandelions.

There are dandelions
everywhere
outside the dental clinic,
lining the hills
of the Aro Valley
with tiny yellow bricks.

Millions of stars
in the emerald sky.

Jo McNeice
from Blue Hour, Otago University Press, 2026

Jo McNeice is a poet based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, in 2013, and her poems have been published in Turbine | Kapohau, Sport, JAAM and Mayhem. In 2023, she won the prestigious Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award for her manuscript Blue Hour, which was published by Otago University Press.

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