Chris pauses to enjoy the flowering cherry trees near his office, while a small Japanese man stands in front of them saying “beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful” over and over again; Chris sends me a photo of the trees in bloom, but not of the small Japanese man. | Paula Harris

beautiful
beautiful
beautiful

Paula Harris lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand, where she writes and sleeps in a lot, because that's what depression makes you do. She won the 2018 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize and the 2017 Lilian Ida Smith Award. Her writing has been published in various journals, including Hobart, Berfrois, Queen Mob's Teahouse, The Rialto, Barren, SWWIM, Diode, Glass, Aotearotica and The Spinoff. She is extremely fond of dark chocolate, shoes and hoarding fabric. | Twitter | Instagram: @paulaharris_poet | Facebook: @paulaharrispoet