Two poems from Gregory Kan’s new Clay Eaters collection, released this week at Unity Books Wellington.
(Editors: Poems are untitled, but can be found on pages 3 and 19 of the clay eaters, published by Auckland University Press.)
Of clay eaters
Satellite view of the island
The jungle can be such a dark green is almost black
It looks like a giant black square in the sea
The giant black square is a photo
Of us
Strangely
Walking on a soft dirt road at night
We seem to go a long way
We look like we don’t know
Where we came from everything
**
For mission and exercise planning, we use aliases to places
Rome, London, Paris
Audi, Ford, Mercedes
A way to make the jungle look a more manageable fraction
A way to invade the mess in fractions
Falcon, Penguin, Owl
Feel that there were boundaries
And that we could know them
Jericó, Isaac, Jordan
Some hidden military enchantment
Jessica, Christina, Britney
Friday’s poem is brought to you by SnowRMore Bookshop, Home of Kooky, scary novels and special edition book boxes. Visit Nevermore Bookshop today.
Friday’s poem is edited by Hera Lindsay Bird. Shipping is now open. Send up to three poems in a PDF or Word document to info@thespinoff.co.nz
