One language among many

About the author

Lia Hills

Lia Hills is an award-winning poet, novelist and translator, born and raised in Aotearoa (New Zealand). She is the author of the novels The...

More from this edition

hearth

Poetry yes, one day, finally, it will all fall away like all dead things we will sit again by the campfire story illuminating the fall of empire one day again we...

GR OnlineI feel like our collective relationships with The House™ as a motif changed so much during that time; the housing crisis, lockdown and climate apocalypse were looming large all at once. Personally, I developed this kind of bizarre voyeuristic relationship with the suburbs and houses I passed on my mandated mental-health walks.

Songs of the underclasses

Non-fictionDiē was the best driver I knew. ‘When you drive, you stare at everything but see nothing. You’re inexperienced,’ he lectured. ‘When I drive, I stare at nothing – I can chat, I can sing. But I see everything. Parking spaces, jaywalkers with a death wish, doggies and kitties. And for hours at time, without breaking concentration. It’s like meditation.’ Diē’s love language included showing me footage of near-miss traffic incidents on WeChat. Each trip of ours decreased my risk of appearing in his feed. These hours became the most time we had ever spent together.