ANNA JACKSON
Second Puppet
I will be the second puppet,
smiling at the puppet laughing.
My eyes will be open
but sly.
I will be the puppet with eyebrows
raised high.
The reason my shirt is more crumpled
is I am the one you touch.
It is my choice to be second puppet
and not to laugh so much.

Anna Jackson's puppets
Anna Jackson lives in Island Bay and lectures in the English programme at Victoria University. She has published four collections of poetry with Auckland University Press, most recently The Gas Leak (2006).
Jackson comments: ‘ “Second Puppet”, which was published in Turbine along with “Red Riding Hood” and “Castle Stitch,” is one of several experiments in a new genre called the Crochet Poem. I have been learning to crochet this year and it is a difficult process in yarn but turns out, for me, to be easier in words. As a poetry genre, crocheting involves looping together fairy tale motifs or images into a new arrangement of lines. The Crochet Poem is typically slight and full of holes. To follow my progress in crochet, see the Looptroop blogspot.’
Links
Auckland University Press author page
New Zealand Book Council writer file