Eclipse Friday 23 November 1984
The radio told New Zealand
not to look at the sun
while my mother scrubbed
the shower-box
quickly
so she wouldn’t miss the eclipse
Sharon rang to say
that Southland was flooding
though the sky looked great
through strips of negative film
and interrupted the chapter on reprisals
The part where
women with shaven heads were dragged
naked through liberated streets
while boys with gouged eyes went insane
because insects were sewn into the wounds
My God How can people? How can people . . . ?
I skipped the details to find
that the dead woman was identified
hours later
by a grieving husband who recognised her shoes
nothing else
and wondered why my friend who
loved women and painted their moods
had given me the book saying
You must read it
Feeling disturbed I rose
to switch on the lights
because the day had turned dull
while my mother mopped the floor
snapping my fingers
at her expression
See – History happens all the time
The moment is gone yet memories remain
and she laughed saying
Isn’t it eerie?
as I remembered a man swimming
from a cave into an equator sun
Hi
I’m a Kiwi
Where are you from?
He’d replied distinctly –
My mother is French
My father was a German soldier
as if it really mattered
and I discovered much later
that details really do
Under a darkening sky
I thought of this beautiful man
and our vulnerable love
in my twenty-second summer
I’d never asked if his mother
had been dragged through streets
because his voice was soft
when he spoke of her
and that was my answer
One day I’d cried
because I felt he adored me
for my name
which stirred
some remembrance within him
when he loved me
So silly yet so real
The postcard of a village
in Alsace-Lorraine
still looks picturesque
though we stopped writing
after two years
and
today as the sun eclipses
I imagine him married
with gorgeous children
Wondering what our child
could have looked like
as I’ve done countless times
since he kissed into my hair
the image of
a babe with my skin
your hair and eyes
our smile
I’d known that only
a wife who would stay
forever could have his child
and promises are useless
when you’re unsure
But right now
on this eclipsed day
the moments seem precious
the memories are mine
and my mother is all excited
because she saw the darkness
