Month: March 2019

Was it only yesterday
we passed the cigars around
the broken circle?

We gathered at the hall
in Onekaka
to bid him farewell
only yesterday.

Was it only yesterday
our salt tears
trickled down
into the whisky glass?

The urgent red lights
and the thump of the chopper
broke our hearts
only yesterday.

Was it only yesterday
that the gate closed
and the gate keeper
left his post?

The politician said wisely
a human life
taken with a baseball bat,
bullet or bomb
is a crime;
a human life
taken with a termination,
procedure or abortion
well, that’s another story.

The high tide is clear to the white shells
on the seabed, it covers the knees
of grandfather and child who
spend an hour or two splashing
water and chasing seagulls.

She faces at her finite days
with calm authority
and looks just a little way ahead;
each day is a treasure, she says,
I shall spend each deliberately well.

All in the band,
everyone in the room,
trading bass for drums
and mandolin for guitar,
voices, calling out one another,
speaking a language
that never graced my lips.

These words a reminder
that we should not kill each other,
that we should not kill our brothers
and sisters nor our babies or our young men;
that we should not convene the story
to reflect the lie of our own truth.