Hippopotamus in the room
Martha Morseth

	Art & Poetry Poetry Price: $19.99 Availability: now Format: Soft Cover, A5, 70 Pages ISBN: 9781877577758 Add this book to your shopping bag

About the Book

“These fresh and lively poems veer towards black comedy
or a search for connection. Martha Morseth’s eye does
not flinch from confronting the thresholds between
the self we present to the world and to the inner and
sometimes uncomfortable reality.” — Diane Brown 

Not an elephant

There’s a hippopotamus in the room
more awkward than an elephant.
It scans the perimeters, paws the carpet;
the eyes narrow, threaten. Conversation
in low-backed cushioned chairs
slides sideways, stumbles,
hides those nutrients delectable to the beast.
Disappointed, the quadruped moves on.
The room relaxes; a giraffe appears,
lithe, with liquid eyes.
There is laughter; drinks are served;
focus becomes oblique.
Watered well, talk is careless,
doesn’t notice the grass grow higher,
a crocodile
climb out of the river. 

About the Author

Martha Morseth was born in the U.S. and came to Dunedin in 1972, where she taught high school English until 1999. Her poems and stories have been published in literary and popular magazines and anthologies, and her first collection of poems, Staying Inside the Lines, was released in 2002.

She has also had plays published, and they have been performed in Dunedin.