The Zero Suite (7)

New Year 2016


It takes quite a while
for things to crank into
their usual chaos

no heavy traffic on the road
for instance
parking places everywhere

no replies to emails
plaintive cries
for rooms to be changed

bodies counted
classes organised
while I sit here

typing out old titles
from the NZ Poetry Yearbook
full of sage reflections

on the scandal of Ezra Pound’s Cantos
Songs for this that & the other
what a lot of singing they did

back thenthe early names
of subsequently celebrated writers
Jowsey for Ireland

I A H Paterson for Alistair
and I think to myself
that I share this taste for stasis

dread to encounter
more ghastly bombings
what is it with building bombs?

when did that become
the sine qua non
of strong political opinions?

butI supposeup lad
thews that cumber
sunlit pallets never thrive

Zero can go back to bed
after keeping us up half the night
With demands for food

and succour
but we must endure
I’m afraid

we must endure


(19/1/16-19/10/17)

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