northern road

northern road

A road of the north travelled mostly by the weathers… I was there

the hawk lifting off
in the still wet
shadow across
the highway

fresh flowers before
low headstones in
a country graveyard

on a hillock
overlooking the
flat lands
to the sea.

our histories
run aground
somewhere
near here.

houhora
june 2010

Copyright © 2021 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved

The music is from a 2016 performance by Emma Sayers of David Farquhar’s ‘Sun and Shadow Telephonic No 13 721 230’;  acknowledgements to NZ on Air for use of the recording.

beetle testament

beetle testament

To cut a caper across the sun and watch it burn… photo by Weathercat Productions

the
beetle
working its
legs along
the pitted
asphalt,
to the
magpie
cutting
shadows
across the
midday sun
only to
watch them
burn,
said
in cello

the punishment

the punishment

From a peek in the door it still seems to be the music room…

for a lark
we’d sing the
wrong words
to the songs
they had us
sing, until
that teacher
bid me write
since i liked
to fool around
and mock at
what was given,
a set of words
to one and
chirp it for her
at the piano,
that lark now
fled the skies,
and i struggled
on in ink, the
lined page an
ocean to sink
upon…
i pulled that
song apart and
frisked the words
for something
i could claim
my own, a feeling
no-one saw, the
angle a high-flying
bird might see,