bird of breath

bird of breath
for Keikei
august 23, 2022

‘A Moonlit Night at Sea’,1885, by marine painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

waking
in midnight
at your breath,
you well asleep,
not aware, your
breath a whistling
bird in the landslide
forest of rain, a
thread dyed and
drawn from
air meandered
through this
labyrinth in
which we came
upon each other
to fit our spaces
together in
midnight
raining
to the
hilt

the
bird of your
breath

a handful of seeds on air

a handful of seeds on air
26 August 2022 for New Zealand National Poetry Day ‘Given Words’ competition.  The words were: Different, thankful, help, dream, warrior

A Weathercat wonder snap

we saw it
round the world,
this moment of the
occupier on the
street, the soldier
in his uniform
with big gun
at the hip
to shoot the
way clear to Kiev
might have thought
this grandmother
was just being rightfully
thankful, coming
forward as if in
welcome, stuffing
with persistent fingers
a generous helping of
sunflower seeds into

traffic

traffic
october 1982
howick

One of the ‘spent places’, snapped by the Weathercat light-snappers.

grass lush
as cloud
on the
hills
sun
gives the
street
pause.

water-tense,
quiet awning
above the
sound of cars
or voice

the still damp
corner
the__spent places