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.