Castor Bay (4.30 pm)

[photograph: Dr John Ross (2005)]

Castor Bay

The day your driver stopped

not halfway home

to say another bus had crashed

in Takapuna

& he’d been told

to turn around

pick up the passengers

but you got out instead

thinking it might be quicker

to walk home

only to see his tail-lights

receding

before you got halfway there

your feet started to hurt

in those damned sandals

until you tried

that one surefire shortcut

that took so much longer

& you felt

not so much alive

as if you ought to feel

something like that

Sunnynook (11.00 am)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

We were soldiers

not me I wasn’t
actor
in other men’s wars

Tonight I took the car out
for a spin
in moonlight
starting at shadows

Today I stayed at home
alone at home
same’s true
of yesterday

Tomorrow?
Off to hunt
the foxes
from their holes

Mairangi Bay (9.30 am)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

The Asbestos Hands of Dr. J.

The sparrow inside
my letterbox
hopped out

when he caught my eye

•

Patron Saint
Atticus
Memorial Day
6 November
Martyred in Phrygia
Nothing else
is known about him

•

3 in the morning
mosquito-net
tangled

around me
car-alarms
still howling

overhead
I tot up
the crapola

that I’ve written
Not a lot
to kindle

when I’m dead

Upper Harbour Highway (6.00 pm)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Tentacles of Destruction

Machines alone have realised that sleep is no longer permitted
– W. G. Sebald, Vertigo

Inconceivably melancholy
traffic lights
against the sky

You might be lucky
they might just go away

just at that moment
when the blue
turns black

ours was foaming
at least our dog gets plenty

a deeper blue
the evening
before you

there’s stuff that you can get
our daughter got a husky

fade in
Great Lash
the sea

Massey Campus (9.00 am)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Cruisy morning, eh?

White haze above the hills
of Albany

“pools of fir”
(H.D.)

or “sooty altars”
(Curnow)

cracker stuff
I like the crosses, man

sparrows bob
across the cobbles

high heels click to class

[First published in Bravado 2 (2004): 22].

Albany Village (8.30 am)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

O Canada !

Birds crack like a whip
as Kathleen sings
Myself I shall adore
abhor?

On the truck
sheep graze
a carpet green

O Canada!
those snowy peaks
the maple leaf
that hand tapping its ash
out in the road

[First published in Bravado 2 (2004): 22].

Roadworks

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Roadworks
Auckland Geography

(for Anna Rugis)


The city is a map of the city
– Ciaran Carson, Belfast Confetti

This is my current work-in-progress -- a set of interlinked poems about my own personal map of where I live. They run in geographical order from north to south ...

Here are the poems:

1. O Canada! (30-31/7/03)
2. Cruisy morning, eh? (8-19/8/03)
3. Tentacles of Destruction (14 & 20-27/5/04)
4. The Asbestos Hands of Dr. J. (7/10/04-26/1/06)
5. We were Soldiers (20-21/4/02)
6. Castor Bay (17-24/2/06)
7. DEATH & BEYOND (2-5/6/03)
8. Refrigerium (20-22/1/06)
9. Birkenhead (21-22/11/03)
10. A Sunday Walk (13-31/7/03)
11. Such Manners (21-23/12/05)
12. First Night (20-21/4/02)
13. Cycle Couriers in Freyberg Square (17-25/2/06)
14. This DVD contains everything there is to know about Stargate - & more! (13-15/9/05)
15. The Kid Stays in the Picture (27-28/5/03)
16. Every girl’s a babe (6-10/9/05)
17. Newmarket (30/6-22/7/03)
18. Unsuccessful Applicant for Neighbourhood Watch (29/9/05)
19. Coromandel (26-28/7/03)
20. Blinds (28/2-11/3/06)

It also functions as a game, the Auckland Game.

The rules are here.

Basically they're very simple.

Start off on the place gameboard, then move onto time.

Here's a list of the poems by place, and here they are again by time.