IX - Huia
By Iain Britton
FROM HAPTIK POEMS 2
giving birth fills a gap
the road freshly tarred
cambers through hills the church
is on life support
it sings then sinks
into nervous flickers
born out
of a half-dead rose
we stand near a clock
lost amongst autumn perennials
& toadstools in hats
a bronze huia
samples a hungry grace
giving birth is precisely why we’re here precisely why
it’s done for we sit on this bench in the dark
like groomed nocturnal workers
almost touching
XII - Fragrant fallout
each winter
you unlock the cartographer’s imagery
conjuring up family trees of wildlife
you slip me into your envelope of flesh
into a dreamer’s method of loving
you pass the stares of animals
the affectation of religious facades
people smear their identities
again & again
i assimilate the early-bird pervasiveness
of a fragrant fallout each winter
the hibiscus
sheds its unwanted colour schemes
each winter
i think of being with you
i pull you in
& drape myself in your blanket
Iain is an Aotearoa New Zealand poet from Palmerston North and author of several UK collections. Poems have been published or are forthcoming in Landfall, Poetry NZ Yearbook, Takahe, Harvard Review, Poetry (Chicago), The New York Times, Wild Court, New Humanist, Stand, Agenda, The Fortnightly Review, Cordite and others