Eden Crescent (6.30 pm)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

First Night

Incorrigibly punctual
talk to me
forgive me

in the park
I suddenly thought
shit

you’re on tonight
he told me
it was all

one thing
looking forward
to a cognac

since this morning
me a wine
the others

to a scream

Ponsonby (2.30 pm)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Such Manners

“Such manners …”
with the emphasis
of early afternoon

Medusa
waiting for your friend
to come (she’s late)

whisper whisper
from the little girl
“You’d like to stay here”

water baby
with a coke bottle
clear dishes

Merry
Xmas!
traffic’s already

starting to build up

Devonport (2.00 pm)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

A Sunday Walk

Heteroglossia is as close a conceptualization as is possible of that locus where centripetal and centrifugal forces collide …

– Michael Holquist

MTChalk butterfly
VICTORIAetched in the pavement
faded to two wings
an eye open on each

bridge binding up the harbour
sails becalmed
stick-figure
mother
halfway up the slope

… as such, it is that which a systematic linguistics must always suppress.

– The Dialogic Imagination: 4 Essays by M. M. Bakhtin

NORTH· How did you do that?
HEAD· I’ll scrub them when I get home
· Whatever
· Have you had an inspiration?
· Uh
· Get up and stop being stupid
– to a fallen child –

[First published in Poetry NZ 28 (2004): 91].