CARIN SMEATON
dark passenger
pete's gone awol
he's been missing for years now
didn't show up for his dad's funeral
no one knows where he is
what he's doing or who he's with
whether he dead or alive
pete ha!
whadda joker
last seen in perth
surfing
under the sun
blazing as always
he told us all about his
shark fights countless
great whites in the deep dark
blu every xmas of course
good ol pete
all that bravado
& don't forget the meth
that too
for the triggers
a blunt for the ticks
yea pete yea u
left ya wife when she was pregnant
fuck she was a saint
last time we heard
u was missing yr kids like crazy
crying so hard
u got the stigmata
blood for tears red as rubies
warm & sticky
it leaks out holy
we all carries it round with us bruv
trauma from the past
trauma from da present
it never really lets go
some of us tho
r jus very high functioning
LISTEN to ‘dark passenger’ by Carin Smeaton

Carin Smeaton (Muaūpoko, Safune, Hurai, Scots) lives in Tāmaki Makaurau with her whānau. Currently she works in a library research centre. 'Dark Passenger' is from Hibiscus Tart, her second poetry/prose collection, published by Titus Books (2024). It was originally published in Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 (Massey University Press, 2024). Titus Books also published Tales of Waihorotiu in 2017. Her third pukapuka, Dea†h Goddess Guide to Self Love, will be published in April, thanks to a really supportive community of whanau, friends and librarians (and Titus Books)!
Links
Dea†h Goddess Guide to Self Love at Titus Books
Photographer credit: Ashlee Keelan-Orr