
Data Breach
First Place in the Letter Review Prize for Poetry
New Poetry by Darrelle Spenceley
14th, April
You ask for proof of my identity
demand a driver’s license
or passport – not more than 3 years expired
I reach into my bag
pull out a pair of vintage Doc Martens
in a floral meadow print – size 7
maybe a birth certificate or
a tea towel covered in Christmas cats
a marriage certificate – if applicable
followed by a nineteenth century French fashion doll
wearing her original clothes
stained and mostly faded
coupled with a mobile phone number
something that no one can exist without
the map of the first subdivision of Sandringham
taken from my living room wall
and a Medicare card
plus a dented ‘No Stopping’ sign and
or a utility bill and bank account number –
all of these are valid forms of identification
the placentas of my children
still cool from the freezer
and the pacemaker that once sat inside my husband.
Darrelle Spenceley is a Melbourne-based writer. She was a finalist in the 2023 Joanne Burns Microlit Award and was published in Lockdown, an anthology by the Melbourne Writer’s Group in 2020, and in Poetry d’Amour. She is currently working on her first poetry collection and drinking too much tea.
Original Artwork by Kita Das