Maris O'Rourke, a New Zealander, has been writing poetry for almost three years. She has been published in various issues of Takahe, Bravado 20, Shot Glass Journal and was the featured poet in November 2010 'a fine line'. She was the runner-up in the 2009 Auckland Sonnet competition with Auckland Coast to Coast; selected for a New Zealand Society of Authors mentorship program in 2010; and runner up in the 2011 Robert Burns Poetry Competition with War Survivors.

Maris O'Rourke

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Cuts

Sheets of rain cut a dry throat swimming in mountainous seas. Nails grow sharp enough to cut sheets with or the moon into black and white. Red skis cut spring snow to corn ribbons. Chestnut braids gleam a glossy pelt on the barber's floor.