Madeleine Fenn
Obituary
Here Phaethon lies / Who drove his father’s chariot: if he did not / Hold it, at least he fell in splendid daring.
— Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.327-9.
Hey Phaethon lie down gentle now
little boy Daddy loved you son
and left you alone to prove it
so you took his keys and a
highway headed into fire four
hundred k’s along the Mad Mile
horsepower running away with you
fucking aye fucking auē friends said
when you scorched the earth and then
scorched your mum’s heart too you
know now never to grow up man
too fast too furious too soon
burn bright star burn
and you’re gone
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT!
after Jenny Holzer
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT WE WOMEN WANT TO SUCK
YOUR HEART OUT COOK IT AND EAT IT IN A SICKENING DISPLAY OF
GENDER ROLES
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT WE WOMEN WANT TO BE SWEET
FOR YOU LIKE RASPBERRY MUFFIN GET STUCK IN YOUR TEETH
LIKE RASPBERRY SEED
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT WE WOMEN WANT TO UNFOLD OUR
VAMPIRIC WINGS AT DUSK EYELINER ON HIT THE TOWN AND MEET
THE COVEN FOR GIRL’S NIGHT
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT WE WOMEN WANT TO DRIVE
YOU CRAZY FROM CAPE REINGA TO BLUFF IN A SHOWY TOPLESS
PINK CONVERTIBLE
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT WE WOMEN WANT A HOST OF
LUCIFEROUS BOYTOYS FULL-BLOODED HOWLING AT THE MOON AS THEY
CLEAN THE POOL
TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT WE WOMEN WANT TO SEND
THOSE BOYTOYS HOME AT CLOSE OF DAY AND ONLY THEN
TAKE OFF ALL OUR CLOTHES
AND GO SWIMMING LIKE THAT
SO PERFECTLY CLEAN
SO CLEARLY ALONE
Madeleine (Maddie) Fenn is currently a MA poetry student at the Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington. She holds a BA in Classics from the University of Otago, where she also studied Creative Writing. Madeleine is originally from Tairāwhiti.