Kendrick Smithyman

MY PORTRAIT 1945 FOR MUM
 

   Soft focus backdrop is obscure.
Because, actually this was a blanket
pegged up to screen confusing passion fruit
at the end of a verandah. I am looking
into westering sun. My eyes dazzle,
I have not died young.

   Buttons shine though shoulder flashes hint
we are overseas but in noncombat zones
we do not dull. This is my summer drill
tropical kit, NZ 4215786
at APO (was it? 1 think so) 356.

                         They said
that I might be a poet, and excused me.
They were often kind.

Auto/Biographies. AUP 1992, p. 16

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Last updated 11 May 2001