New verse from Auckland writer CK Stead.

 

Witchy Wellington

 

A summer southerly

sky grey

the sea a beat-up

and passing Grass Street

I thought ‘Intolerable Lauris’ –

not so much, or not just, the person

but the name,

the way those words seemed to belong together –

good company, great fun, wordy and witty

but when backs were to the wall and guns blazing

truth was a stranger.

 

I’d come down from Auckland

in a lassitude of reluctance

but now here it was again

that same old

pricking of the thumbs.

 

CK Stead, 2018

 

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