A new poem by Paekākāriki poet Kerry Dalton.

Comeuppance

All week a seal has come into our house
through the cat door.
Three times we returned him to the sea, thinking
he had got lost. But he came back.

Then we got the DOC ranger involved,
who put him into the ocean further
afield. But here he is again.
We have limited our conversation

while he is around. Little seal’s ears and all that –
No talk of the fact that orange roughy
is nearly fished out, let alone
how the ocean is warming.

We may have given him a fish
or two, against the ranger’s orders
After all, how can you resist
those big brown eyes?

We have been polite
about the smell, only
opening the doors and windows
after he leaves.

Today we came downstairs
to a seal party. They were everywhere.
Clearly, the seal was taking advantage.
One or two maybe but 40!

I flapped at them with a tea towel.
Mike brandished the coal shovel.
We took the seal aside and told him that
we were very disappointed in him,

that this is our home and he needs to treat it
with respect. The seal lifted a flipper
and pointed. In our front room,
was only swirling sea.

The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are now being accepted until 31 January 2023. Please send up to three poems in a Word or PDF document to chris@christse.co.nz.