Forrest Hill (10.30 am)

[photograph: Jack Ross (2006)]

DEATH & BEYOND
ALL WELCOME
– Forrest Hill Presbyterian

New & Pre-Loved
Patroklos

O my rider
does that ring a bell?

Have we been here before?
Or never

suppedtuppednapped
rapt

hips above a skirt
that tilt

of innocent intent
PatroklosO my rider

Hektor has you now
Osama-bearded

laughing as he kills

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