Coming Spring 2026

Tomboy traces the fractures of a childhood shaped by domestic violence, illness, paternal longing, and survival. These poems confront the father and authorities who ruled through fear, and honour the mother whose devotion came at great personal cost. What emerges is a stark portrait of endurance—navigating cruelty and tenderness, rage and silence, while resisting all those determined to reshape her.

Red Bills Tin

I was fascinated by Mum’s red bills tin—
the slits in the top, the narrow
cream compartments within,
labelled gas, electric, food, and so on.

Each week, she’d divide up the fivers,
the crumpled notes she earned on the quiet,
scrubbing other people’s filthy toilets.
Even then, I knew
my mum was one of life’s survivors.

Though I wished she hadn’t had to be.

She kept track so meticulously—
never miscounted, never missed a bill.
And while she often went hungry,
my brother and I never once went without.