Roses

Third place in the Bernard Gadd Memorial Poetry Prize, 2009

roses are blooming
on the old sofa
lush and surreal
they’ve flourished there
interwoven since 1937
near the coiling beige ferns
patterned in the carpet

she has gone
her small personal stuff
turned up at the school gala

someone said
at the bargain table
they opened
her old handbag
with a diary in it/1971
‘Eric went back to work today’
plus a used T E A L air ticket
they shut the bag and left

her clothes are spreading
far and wide
op shops and all of that

the 5 roomed house
stands empty
with the sun pouring through
it has a welcoming air

the neighbours remember her
for her smile/her humility
and her stiff permed hair
she had outlived her kith and kin
and a new family are moving in.

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Something in the Way

Omitting
the Great South Road
the Southern Motorway
and the Airport
three features mark this side of town

Mangere Mountain
the Stonefields
and the Manukau Harbour

karakia to the kingfisher
stand-in for the people
circular plots
of reticent rocks
on the silent Stonefields

Mangere Mountain
a double yolker

the tide goes out
long walk to the channel
as the planes go over
to the Tasman Sea

so why
these three?
tried to paint them
four years ago
with oils
sitting
beside black and white cows

staring/painting/brushing on
viridian/emerald/yellow ochre
and the rest
all a test

the Mountain/a frog
the Harbour/flat
the Stonefields/evasive/hovering
might as well go abstract

pulled back there/ time again
best paint a blade of grass
just not seeing
the Mountain
the Harbour
the Stonefields
the Truth

not seeing
viridian/yellow ochre
and emerald
but some other thing
in my head.

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