Chris Parsons is a writer from Aotearoa - New Zealand whose work appears in print and online in places like Blackmail Press, Landfall, Poetry NZ Yearbook, Snorkel, Southerly and Takehē.

Chris Parsons

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The Power

for Maria Kirbasova 1941 - 2011
Russian anti-war activist

Its Spring in the world and our sons are
planting iron, bedding dragons' teeth
among the clods. Its Spring in the world
and the mothers of soldiers are erupting

along avenues, blossoming with placards.
As militia pick them off they regenerate
with all the power of the little gardens.
Crushed, they sheen rough uniforms with

scent. No death beneath their feet, only
febrile darkness for the weaving of bread,
for the knitting of stories, for the calciferous
needlework of divine architecture.