(AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND OUT) Man walking out of a suburban corner store (Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
(AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND OUT) Man walking out of a suburban corner store (Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

BooksFebruary 10, 2017

The Friday poem: ‘Palaces’ by Mary Macpherson

(AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND OUT) Man walking out of a suburban corner store (Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
(AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND OUT) Man walking out of a suburban corner store (Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

New verse by Wellington poet Mary Macpherson

 

Palaces

 

When it became warmer, we mooned over lost flowers

 

Iit again amongst hunks of grass. We found marbles

 

behind the dresser and remembered palaces

 

in distant swirls of colour. Shops meant something too.

 

We love the fierce desire for the things and the beautiful

 

imaginary self. Almost overnight, the sad-faced dairy

 

became a darkened window with a spot-lit bath,

 

then leapt to its future as a dog grooming establishment.

 

She thought of summers when buying three pairs of togs

 

was as normal as sand. I loved the idea of silver gates

 

guarding our wishes. They were forever before us –

 

lights down a suburban street, the dark flesh of leaves,

 

petals like dancers in a sodium night.

 

 

 

 

Keep going!