Wayfarers

previously published in The Beggar (1924) and
Collected Poems (Pegasus, 1962; Victoria University Press, 1990)

That I go out alone to them it seems

because they see none with me in the way

ignorant that the fabrics of my dreams

are less intangible to me than they

Ignorant that I have heard and seen Christ break

the bondage of his tongue-tied sightlessness

have walked with firm-faithed Mary to the stake

and kissed the hem of martyred Flora's dress

And I in Lichfield have been

Chatterton's accessory in suicide

have Gaius Marius in Minturnae seen

for many hours by Waitemata's tide

Burnt Dian's temple down in Otahuhu

and slain Herostratus at Papatoe

and here in Penrose brought Aeneas through

to calm Ausonian lands from bloody Troy.

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