Long Range Forecast

(for Paula Green at 60)

 

September and still winter

but the purple irises are out

under the vine

and suddenly every branch and twig

of the plum is pricked with blossom.

 

This is an oath sworn by the season

hand on heart.

It’s in the sky too between showers.

The days are longer

and the wet green lawn is sprinkled

with a white hail of daisies.

 

Today looking down from the blue bridge

that crosses to Tamaki Drive

I saw three dogfish in a kind of formation

coming in with the tide.

The sun lay over the sea

out past Devonport, far out into the Gulf.

 

‘Soon,’ it said, ‘soon’

and I knew it could be trusted.