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Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

960 followers 1.9K following 540 posts

Would rather write than talk. Sometimes I don’t read skeets properly, especially pre-coffee. Rāmere is my favourite day. Published with Broken Spine Arts. Work online in Flash Frontier, Voicemail Poems
Please click on ‘media’ to read some of my poems

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Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Thank you @paragraphplanet.bsky.social
My little story is today’s paragraph.

Today's 75-word Paragraph
Jason regretted the extra sugar in his coffee.
It is the reason he is standing in a bank vault.
A cacophony of alarms and shouting growing louder as smoke congests the shrinking space. His thoughts narrow to the rich black syrup Maeve poured into his mug this morning. His usual one sugar added without expression. The second, delivered with her knowing sneer; the look she gets when she knows he will do whatever she says.
By: Cindy Kurukaanga

September 30, 2025 at 6:05 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

I am thrilled this poem got a special mention in Given Words 2025. It is amongst a wonderful collection of works, please fill your Friday afternoon reading.
I have added a glossary in the comments for those unfamiliar with Te Reo.

nzgivenwords.blogspot.com/2025/09/give...

No Te Paruparu, No Te Purapura Of the Mud, Of the Seed
They came to me while barefoot in bitter mud, with acons angry whakapapa, they held me there.
Hands stretched through flesh soaked earth, wrapped my feet in weighted expectation.
My soles a pair of seeds, husks waiting to be pierced by
a justice of tipuna, as steadfast as battle-blooded taiaha.
Hope takes root.
Lightfast, it endures this bright white blaze.

September 12, 2025 at 4:47 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Eden Rock
Charles Causley

Eden Rock
They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:
My father, twenty-five, in the same suit Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack Still two years old and trembling at his feet.
My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dress Drawn at the waist, ribbon in her straw hat,
Has spread the stiff white cloth over the grass.
Her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light.
She pours tea from a Thermos, the milk straight From an old H.P. Sauce bottle, a screw Of paper for a cork; slowly sets out The same three plates, the tin cups painted blue.
The sky whitens as if lit by three suns.
My mother shades her eyes and looks my way
Over the drifted stream. My father spins A stone along the water. Leisurely,
They beckon to me from the other bank.
I hear them call, 'See where the stream-path is!
Crossing is not as hard as you might think.'
I had not thought that it would be like this.

August 26, 2025 at 7:08 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

I have lost track of the days, I’ll blame travelling rather than age. Here’s a late submission for this weeks #poemsabout #chandeliers

Thank you @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Behind the Glass
This chandelier dazzles, deflects inquisition
Crystal glazed, hollowed, dark centres hide
To surface when glare retires
Seeps through cracks too small to see in false light

August 23, 2025 at 2:30 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Here’s my #ceasefire #poemsabout contribution. Thanks for reading.
@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

#poetry #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity

The Barking Gun

Dogged black hooks
worm up vertebrae
scrape inside
where stead should be fast
Snug themselves
into that week I walked every day
into that pride in how she's doing, now
into that morning of clear skin
into that poem that feels finished
into that
into that
Resistance pulls taut the line
with the strength
of a thousand mirror recoils
Resistance pulls the trigger on this cowardly gun
put the gun down
put the dog down, first

August 15, 2025 at 10:03 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Big thank tou to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for instilling process into my editing. This is my wip from that session

#poemsabout

See That Door
It's there, right there
Black blossom blooms
Take a step
Dark fingers map their trail
Take a breath
Purple feathers unfurl
Take the handle, turn it
Opaque orange clouds begin to fade
Step through, step over, just step
Clear

July 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Look what made it to the Antipodes! Now to make a coffee and enjoy
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@karenpgonzalez.bsky.social
#gatsby
#beautifullittlefools
#blueskypoets

Poetry anthology ‘Beautiful Little Fools’ poetry of glamour, obsession and the gilded age

July 15, 2025 at 5:19 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

CW: Profanity
I wrote this a few weeks ago and this seems the perfect prompt for it, at least it would be in my Nana’s eyes.
Please click on the image
Thank you @alanparry83.bsky.social
@brokenspinearts.bsky.social

#poemsabout #itsasin #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity

To Swear is to Sin
I can hear her voice close to my ear, firm but calm, as was her way
That is an abhorrent word she had told me, when it slipped out of my
rebellious 13-vear-old mouth
I know she will be disappointed as she peers down, but I call you a cunt anyway
Abhorrent: from the Latin abhorrere, ombining 'ab' - meaning away fror
ith 'horrère' - meaning to bristle or shudder a
It is true, you do make mo shudder and bristle
As does the abhorrent that now lives in the house we raised our family in
While I +bhorrent a little
Cunt: an offensive word for a very unpleasant and /or stupid person

June 27, 2025 at 7:51 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

I felt the need for colour and whimsy

Thank you @brokenspinearts.bsky.social @alanparry83.bsky.social
#poemsabout #defeat #poetrycommunity #blueskypoets

Sidewalk chalk

When the grey haze hangs low
With the keenest kelly green
Chalk blades across the pavement
Touch leaves, breathe deep

When the spirit darkens
Colour clouds brilliant vermillion
On lip-smacking lemon sky
Add a sun or two, dusky blue

Etch gardens on the street
Candy pink corn stalks
Giant sunflowers with sapphire seeds
Rows of royal purple peas

When the defeatist needs defeating
Wash the world in brilliant hues
If only til the next rain
Wash the world anew

May 30, 2025 at 8:03 PM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

I am very excited to have a poem in the upcoming ‘Beautiful Little Fools’ anthology from @brokenspinearts.bsky.social Marking 100 years of The Great Gatsby. Many thanks to @alanparry83.bsky.social and @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social

#beautifullittlefools
#Gatsby100
#poetsofbluesky
#poetrycommunity

May 13, 2025 at 8:14 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

I am very laye this week to #LifttotheSky but I have just watched the brilliant @erikkennedy.com and have to share

May 13, 2025 at 4:40 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

It’s been a wet few days, perfect for hiding away, pen in hand. After learning about cosmic dust, I started down a whimsical path. This is where I ended up. #poemsabout #poetsofbluesky #stardust @alanparry83.bsky.social @brokenspinearts.bsky.social

False Dawns

Let me scatter that pre-sunrise light
Flick a false dawn across the dark

Be an ember in a bonfire,
have my molecules
burned and dispersed, floating
in waves of heat, up
to be clutched
by the cold starry air, crash
into others, form a speck as we cool

How cool!

We would aim for the zodiacal cloud,
where all the cosmic dust goes
Flee as far as we can, knowing
gravity will catch us and bring
us back down. Our false dawn will
still be magnificent as we watch
the pre-dawn blaze

May 8, 2025 at 10:35 PM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Look what arrived today
#glow
#poetryanthology
#peelingapples
#novella

Photo of two books. Peeling Apples by Alan Parry and Glow : City at Night, Poetry Anthology

May 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Not possible for these guys to be criminals

May 7, 2025 at 4:20 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

I got inspired by this pic to write a little ditty

#ekphrasticpoetry
#poetry #folkart #NationalPoetryMonth
@karenpgonzalez.bsky.social

With sunshine eyes askew
You view the come and go
Strong back, straight legs of brush-flicked regal blue
Giving rest to bodies weary Bags too heavy, leaden legs
Your quirky rouge cheers
The fast in your stead

April 24, 2025 at 7:54 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

A confession rather than a prayer #PoemsAbout
#gutterprayer

Thanks again @brokenspinearts.bsky.social and @alanparry83.bsky.social

Confessional
I come here to confess, never to pray I know prayers do not get answered.
Tonight, the off-white bulb at the entrance lights my path to the sacristy door.
My duties as servant to God's servant await. Tonight, I will confess.
Tonight, I will confess to the most heinous sin as I commit it. I will confess it to the one
I am committing it against.
I hope he prays for forgiveness.

April 18, 2025 at 1:15 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

With the aim of challenging myself, I chose the desalination confessional. This poem only partly meets the brief and I took it a bit further than just desalination. Thank you @brokenspinearts.bsky.social @alanparry83.bsky.social
#poemsabout
#saltwater

Recycling

I am lucky to have this job. I pretend I am an airport security officer looking
for something nefarious in carryon.
Instead, I find a pacemaker. These don’t
crush like bone. I say a prayer for both
of us as I extract it and the titanium
mitral valve that meant she lived far
past the best age for recycling.
The sterile humming of the macerator
welcomes her and her precious liquid.
Filtered, desalinated, all residual guilt
removed. The ultimate recycle.
A stark ending.
Well deserved.

April 16, 2025 at 9:04 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

Prompt 1
#PoemsAbout #Saltwater
Thank you @brokenspinearts.bsky.social @alanparry83.bsky.social

Beauty in the Dark
I tasted iron
before the sea took me
I tasted him before that
With whiskey-fire breath he heaved. My jaw taking the blow.
Of impotent will he watched me descend
There was no way back through foam that whispered lullabies, kelp that waved goodbye with one hand, pushed down with the other
My rusted scent drawing a hungry audience
I looked for the beauty in the dark, knowing I would never be bloated and broken.

April 14, 2025 at 2:53 AM

Cindy Ana 🇳🇿

@kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

My banner pic is taken from a painting she gave to my parents for their wedding. It always hung above the hearth. I was about ten when I finally saw the lady with her arms around the horse
www.teaonews.co.nz/2025/04/12/r...