New verse by Hamilton writer Therese Lloyd.

Roast Lamb for Christmas Dinner, For Example

when I think of temporary things
like this broken pencil
that breaks more with each word
or the marriage that I had once
and then didn’t, or
the way my father
drank gin and tonic for breakfast
on the last days of his life
and the thing under the car
that’s missing, dropped off no doubt
on some road I travel daily
and I don’t know
I just don’t know
if it’s the lack of you
or you, or the sidelong wink
to the three bottles of chardonnay
lined up like sunny wise men
oh husband—Jesus Christ?
you are the lamb
in the bible, the hilarious
jewel-encrusted lamb
spiralling around in the spiritual ecstasies
of our Lord
and we all know how that ended
how strange we all are
mixing up our stories
and getting things right and wrong
roast lamb for Christmas dinner, for example.

From the new collection The Facts by Therese Lloyd (Victoria University Press, $25), available at Unity Books.