Month: December 2019

They gathered on the front deck
of the new house
on the days leading
up to Christmas;
there they redrew themselves
as they are now,
the past lingering
like shadows
passing through deep eyes.

In a crowded room
they picked each other out
and in the course of
conversation
placed themselves
in that close circle
they had known
all those years ago.

They marched
in the street
and said no woman,
no man, no human being
has the divine right
to blow out the candle
of another’s life,
by any procedure –
be that by war, abortion,
or euthanasia;
they marched, again
and again.

As sacred as the star
Under which the child sleeps
This life bestowed
A gift, a royal robe
Entrusted to our keep

As sacred as the breath
For which the old woman fights
This life bestowed
A gift, with nothing owed
Let honour be her light

As sacred as the blood
Spilled from a soldier’s veins
This life bestowed
A gift, as bullets flow
A storm of hail and rain

Even the stars know
life is sacred,
all life, unborn to
‘past their prime,’
all life nurtured,
not destroyed,
human life,
animal life,
plant life…
all essential
to the well-being
of us all.

The boat cut a white wake
through the deep blue sea
across Kawau Bay to the
wild waters of the Gulf
to begin the long run south
down the coast looking for
the harbour.

Everything fades
but blood and family
but even they will
eventually leave us
to till a lone furrow
in the field of sadness.

She walks these streets
in the thin shadows of her bones
and keeps her name
mostly to herself.
She has no mirror,
but even if she did,
she cannot see herself
as we see her.