Bernadette Hall

ANCESTRAL VOICES AND I’M LISTENING

we’re doin’ alright
in this little land
we stole from the Maoris  

ancestral Irish voices
raw, self-mocking, tough

when things got rough
they didn’t make a song
and dance of it

they laughed, got drunk,
they called a spade
a spade and when I wanted

praise, why, you’re the girl
your mother forgot to drown
was good enough.  

From Still Talking, Wellington: Victoria UP, 1997
© Bernadette Hall
 

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Last updated 25 March, 2005