Ashleigh Young
Ashleigh Young lives in Wellington. Her first book of poems, Magnificent Moon (Victoria University Press), was published in 2012. Her poems and essays have appeared in Hue & Cry, Griffith Review, Five Dials, Sport, Tell You What and The Spinoff. An essay collection is forthcoming from VUP in 2016.
Young comments: ‘This poem is simply an account of a personal experience. I was 14, and was lucky enough to go on a trip to the United States. I was with my parents. Although parts of the trip were great, everywhere we went we left a trail of angry service people because my parents refused to tip anyone. Doors were slammed in our faces, taxi drivers yelled abuse as we departed, etc. The elderly man with the electrolarynx in Reno, Nevada seemed to cement my parents' conviction that this country was ridiculous and impossible to understand. For my dad though, it was great material – he loved to recount the story of the electrolarynx, while doing the voice.’
