Time Axis

24. 8.00 PM Stop
23. 7.30 PM Coromandel
22. 7.00 PM Western Springs
21. 6.30 PM Eden Crescent
20. 6.00 PM Upper Harbour Highway
19. 5.30 PM Find a Car Park
18. 5.00 PM Rangitoto
17. 4.30 PM Castor Bay
16. 4.00 PM Birkenhead
15. 3.30 PM K Rd
14. 3.00 PM Trip & Fall
13. 2.30 PM Ponsonby
12. 2.00 PM Devonport
11. 1.30 PM Newmarket
10. 1.00 PM High St
9. 12.30 PM Catch the Bus
8. 12.00 Noon Grey Lynn
7. 11.30 AM Grafton
6. 11.00 AM Sunnynook
5. 10.30 AM Forrest Hill
4. 10.00 AM Ferry Turns Back
3. 9.30 AM Mairangi Bay
2. 9.00 AM Massey Campus
1. 8.30 AM Albany Village
0. 8.00 Am Start

Coda

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

Blinds
(at Massey Albany)

blocking
the wind’s
wolf-howl
as students
scribble

Judith
Fredricsen
walks past
towed by
her seeing-eye

dog
Hi Jack!
won’t stop
I stop
remember her

three months
after
the funeral
where Fairburn
walked

that poem
she cut out
read out
by me
he’s buried

over there

Coromandel (7.30 pm)

[photograph: Simon Creasey (2005)]

Coromandel

Es ist Zeit, daß es Zeit wird
– Paul Celan, “Corona”

bird stalks by
5-fingered sky
Sunday

in the rearview mirror
Autumn gnaws my hands
we’re friends

van reversing
past the
pharmacy

check out those jeans
swap spit
talk shit

don’t stare at
us
it’s

time she said
it’s time the asphalt
bled

it’s time

[First published in Poetry NZ 28 (2004): 92.].