DOWNS
Once someone brought
to our class
a storm-stressed penguin
in a cardboard box
it stood bewildered.
*
Down is a word for the
tender beard of a young man
or for the soft
under-feathers of a bird
that keep it warm while
plunging in sub-zero seas.
*
At your age I first
travelled north
the train slipped between
waves of velvety hills.
Down is a word for a mood,
and you descend
like a penguin
hold your breath
and rise again.
PACIFIC STREET, DUNEDIN
The fresh wind assists you
to a street with waves in it.
You cling to a handrail
by high-pooped villas
sailing down a green swell.
The gale rips the last
rags off proud trees and
tears through the Town Belt
whirls to warehouses
where two cranes angle
at a white flocked harbour
skips the skinny
isthmus to expand
in the blue
Pacific.
