Western Springs (7.00 pm)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Unsuccessful Applicant for
Neighbourhood Watch

I like to see
what people do
in private
in secret
in the dark

Newmarket (1.30 pm)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Newmarket

Everybody’s got to
have plans
my magnum opus

For a hard-earned
thirst
face caked with clay

fixed-rabbit stare
from the kid who
cut me off

Everybody’s got to have
this headache
sick to your stomach

Everybody’s got to
dress
dress to impress

Grey Lynn (12.00 noon)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Every girl’s a babe

in Jackworld
Annora’s mother

pilloried on 12 o’clock TV
not answering the door

We’ve had her up before
she’ll keep on doing it

untilunspoken
feral old man

tethered in the yard
titanic mounds

of garbageThey’re afraid
of dinging up their cars

They always stop
comforting me

when I stalked out of Poetry
Livea good kind woman

turned into the butt
of media mikes

& yetthe squalor
freaked me out

that dark reporter …