tūī vaunting themselves through the tree
their song drawing
fear off me like steam
making my heart dazzle
like a windscreen
being spattered with bugs
*
a memory of riding fast down the hill
with purple light streaming into my mouth
and out of my injuries
if I can just watch enough birds it will drown me out
if I can just be overwhelmed by birds . . .
my regrets are beautifully made
and unlike many others we are seeing at this time
*
I’ll go down
trying to embrace everyone
overwhelmed by the hill I’m regretting my way up again
growing uglier – but fitter, but fitter – all the time
and if I can’t continue
then I can’t walk either
*
a sparrow pins a smaller sparrow down
to drop food into its beak. Give over, be sat on, be fed,
a song vaunts itself through the smaller sparrow,
it isn’t any use
getting angrier.
