Agnus
Dei
I
carried the lamb in a sack on my horse
It's buggered, said
Dad, throw it in the creek.
The creek leaped,
dimpled. Small bubbles
whirled, it rumpled
where I was looking
the water shadowed
half-blue-black
deep just there with
duckweed floating out
the yards behind all
noise, the cattle swirling
up air swelled with
dust and bellowing.
Flies lighted on and
off the rails.
I took the lamb and
kneeled in the pudgy mud
both hands under it,
under the water,
laid it carefully
into the shocked cold.
It hardly struggled,
there was so little left.
Put the bloody thing
out of its misery
I heard in my head
as I pushed it under
and the water
shuddered.
Get the hell out
of that he yelled at my back
you macabre
little bastard!
It
might have been ghoulish, he was good with words.
The
yards were sweating hot
Dad
wiped his hatband, the sack smelling
of
dry stiff flax, I wiped my nose
my
hand all mud and numb.
The
birds hummed. In rain, in wind
I
go out all hours on my lambing beat
he's
the shadow of me, always riding beside me.
Let it go he
said, quietly. I let it go floating
it
bobbed and the sun caught the eye, closing.
Shush,
shush, said the creek.
Marty
Smith
I
heard Marty Smith read at the NZ Poetry Conference and she was an
astonishment. She was on last, and everything had been pretty tip top
– but my goodness me she blew me away. And one of the nicest people
you could hope to meet in a month of Sundays. She posted me her book
Horse With Hat (Victoria
University Press) which had won Best First Book at the NZ Post Book
Awards, and that was an astonishment too. I won't go on and on. Get
your hands on the book and read it for yourself. (And also look at
it, because the illustrations in the book are another astonishment.)
Marty will be in
Melbourne for one week and it would be a shame to miss out on the
chance to hear her read and have a bit of a chat. (But in case you do
here is the link to her poem 'Hat' in Best NZ Poems with a recording
of her reading.)
But don't. Don't
miss out. Three chances so your chances are good.
Passionate Tongues
Monday July 11
Brunswick Hotel 140
Sydney Road
7-30
Tago Mago
744 High Street
Thornbury
Wednesday 13th
July
8pm – 10-30 pm
Dan O'Connell
225 Canning Street
Carlton
Saturday 16th
July
2 - 5 pm
http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/horse-with-hat/
