IX - Huia

Two poems By Iain Britton

(FROM HAPTIK POEMS 2)

giving birth     fills a gap

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the road freshly tarred

cambers through hills     the church

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is on life support

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it sings     then sinks

into nervous flickers

born out

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of a half-dead rose

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we stand near a clock

lost amongst autumn perennials

& toadstools in hats

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a bronze huia

samples a hungry grace

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giving birth is precisely why we’re here precisely why

it’s done     for we sit on this bench in the dark

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like groomed nocturnal workers

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almost touching

XII - Fragrant fallout

each winter

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you unlock the cartographer’s imagery

conjuring up family trees of wildlife

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you slip me into your envelope of flesh

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into a dreamer’s method of loving

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you pass the stares of animals

the affectation of religious facades

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people smear their identities

again & again

i assimilate the early-bird pervasiveness

of a fragrant fallout     each winter

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the hibiscus

sheds its unwanted colour schemes

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each winter

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i think of being with you

i pull you in

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& 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