Jordan Irvine
Boy
in 2010 i was too young to watch ‘boy’
i wanted to watch it because michael jackson only just died the year before
when i was six and it changed my life
homework ignored in favour of learning to moonwalk
cds, books, posters and dvds for christmases and birthdays
the only topic of conversation
three years pass and now finally i can see this movie
this is a movie about a boy — not the hugh grant movie ‘about a boy’
it’s called ‘boy’ and it’s about this boy whose name is boy who liked michael jackson
just like me
in a small town like me
poor like me
surrounded by adults with big bottles like me
a dad he wanted to impress like me
a boy finding out his dad is human like me
and how he wants to get of here
this small town where you could only throw mud at cows
but can’t imagine a world without it
it’s about a boy who learns responsibility and compassion and love
and it was written by a boy
since 2010, it took twelve years to find out i wasn’t a boy
but i see that film and i feel like that boy
and feel hurt that the boy was created by a childish man
who is not compassionate
and stands for nothing
‘hine e hine’ plays and i close my eyes like that boy and let myself fall
but know i’ll be caught by a new generation of
boys
Jordan Irvine (they/them) is an Ōtepoti-born, Ōtautahi-based poet who has been published in The Spinoff, bad apple and The Art Lens.