I Like Rich People, but I Couldn’t Eat a Whole One Myself
Never tell yourself that the megarich
aren’t like you and me.
Billionaires are just ordinary people
who throw away
their electric toothbrushes
every night.
Believe it or not,
genetically speaking,
you have more in common with an oligarch
than with an aardvark
or a sea turtle
or a red-collared lorikeet.
I know this is bitter news,
but that’s what news is—
an acrid, tacky sap
that sticks together the days.
Whoever invented knowledge
was on some sort of sick power trip.
The point is
we all throb with worry
about something.
We all hum on common frequencies
of dread and guilt
and superficial decency.
It’s worth bearing this in mind
next time you read about
some cute little plutocrats
who will be ensconced safely,
post apocalypse,
in a secret alpine bolthole:
remember the commandment
to love them
as you
track down
their bunkers
and overrun them.
How a Year Ends
A year is a road
that ends at the sea
in an afterthought of a town,
just a few weatherbeaten houses,
some indifferent trees,
a small picnic area,
and a one-eyed cat
wandering around proprietorially.
You drove here
because it is here.
The sky is orange and purple,
like a burning vineyard.
And you put your foot down
and plunge off the road.
You drive through the spinifex,
down the shifting dune slope,
across the tide line,
and into the surf,
gunning it into the waves.
The footwell fills up,
the seawater pours in,
the engine is flooding,
the cabin is all foam and confusion,
you’re losing consciousness,
you’re losing consciousness,
and you wake up
parked at the kerb
where you started last year,
soaking wet.
(These poems have been excerpted from Sick Power Trip )
Erik Kennedy is a poet, critic, editor, and performer in Christchurch in Aotearoa New Zealand. His three books are There’s No Place Like the Internet in Springtime (2018), Another Beautiful Day Indoors (2022), and Sick Power Trip (2025), all with Te Herenga Waka University. His first and third books were shortlisted for best book of poetry in New Zealand’s national book awards, the Ockhams. He also co-edited an anthology of climate change poetry from Aotearoa and the Pacific called No Other Place to Stand (Auckland University Press, 2022).
You can read Erik Kennedy’s interview by clicking here.
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