Falling in love on the way home
I have fallen in love
on the way home
first a lake lay
down beside me
naked to the horizon
then a hill stretched
out its brown arm and
drew me close I could
smell the sweat of its
crevices at every turn
then a harbour licked
my ear whispering the
things harbours say
to all the girls about
other places they have
touched but you’re the
one babe hey you’re
the one
then I reached the
summit and the sky
lifted itself above me
and its face was huge
and tender it breathed
in my hair and its breath
was a hawk hung by a
single thread
then I was flying I was
falling I was out of it
completely rock and cloud
under my shoulders I was
spread like the blue sweep
of the sea
take me I said
take me I’m yours
yours when I was born with
the Waitaki on my left hand
the Pacific at my feet
the Kakanuis at my head
yours today
and yours when I am furled
at last into a crack on your
scarred side to ooze and
crumble in your sweet dark
yours now and forever
my country said nothing
but it leaned back and lit
one
lingering
luminous
sunset
I like a place where the weather wins.
I like a place where floods cut the
road and trees fall and boats
can’t sail and the mail’s late.
I like a place where people say
“We had 25cms last night” and
everyone talks about the rain as if
it were an irritating aunt, the sort
who does exactly what she pleases.
I like a place where trees are popped
from the ground like parsnips and
roofs vanish and people huddle
in the bathroom. I like a place where
grass shrivels and the earth cracks
like an old pot.
I like a place where thunder is god
with a megaphone telling us to stay
in line or else. I like a place where I
know my place and the weather is
big.
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