many hands

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day five

LET’S GO    LET’S GO NOW
LET’S GO TO THE CITY  

where the poets are waiting
in their towers of shining glass
for the boxes of oranges we bring
from Narromine    for the ruin of a sound
as each word hits the air and bounces
LOVE DEATH AND THE WEATHER
flawless and funny    the streets are full
of advice for the cerebral hemispheres

<= LOOK LEFT        LOOK RIGHT =>
LOOK RIGHT =>      <= LOOK LEFT

we got lost on Experiment Street
trying to drop off the ambrosia
we opened our ears and let the sounds
of a bridge roar through    every taxi
we took was driven by a poet
who had us down the moment we opened
our mouths    which island? my mother
my father my sister my cousin my aunt
twenty years five years a month last week
not Bauhaus but Powerhouse
a museum flicking past my inattentive ear
flip flop    an archipelago upside down in the sky
and Ken intoning Ken intoning stars
get in your eyes when you expect them least

or not at all    e toru nga mea we sing
nga mea nunui    three things and the most important
of these    ko te mea nui ko te aroha is love

there was the trip to Luna Park
and its big red maw    there were meetings
in coffee shops and full day dérives
through second hand through reading rooms
through halls in which a hundred voices
rose and fell    profusion DE NOS JOURS
delirium DE NOS JOURS everything
DE NOS JOURS and no jour
too short to effect a sparkly rendezvous

she’s up at dawn each day
to run with other poets of the metropolis
through parks and groves    along busy avenues
and across the harbour bridge
look right look left look out and about
poetic muscle working the urban grid

she watches someone climb over
iron gates that don’t open until 7 am
he lopes off through the gardens
breath floating back on the dewy air
HE  EAR  ART  HEAR  T  EAR
HEAR  T  EAR  HE  EAR  ART
 

©Michele Leggott