Bio
Charmaine Thomson lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Charmaine studied performance music and teaching in the past. She studied poetry through the online programme at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2007. She works in the Tertiary Education sector. She has been published in both New Zealand and United States publications including the 4th Floor Literary Journal, A Fine Line, The Shot Glass Journal and the Fib Review.
Charmaine is interested in exploring the connections between instrumental composition, Neo Latin languages and performance.
Charmaine Thomson
Arohata
They stripped the hills bare
Leaving only the compound
stretching for the sun
The pines held the prisoners
And played them muted
lullabies, chasing the past away
They left the clay banks
Unfinished and untidy
as an added punishment
Arohata is a women's prison in Wellington, New Zealand. Arohata means "the bridge" in Maori and indicates a wish to provide a bridge between past offending and a future in the wider community.