2-Poem #21 Auckland Revisited-xi&xii Michael O'Leary

xi

Double-tracking to the west
From Parimoana memories
Across the just out of sight
Bridge, Morningside where
gum trees glisten

And graffiti gangs battle it out
And the poet’s penis bursts
Through the roof, what’s worse
Is this pain in here, too much of
. . . nothing hurts

Says the New York Subway copy-cats



xii

Mount Albert to Avondale
Then we are heading down into real
Wild Westie country, where
A jokes a joke for all that
then its no joke

But a cruel irony. One job I had was
Writing the history of the cemetery
Out here on the hill at Waikumete
Where my mother, father, and sister
. . . lie under a tree

But none have stones to say which one