The Friday Poem: ‘Mr Explorer Douglas’ by David Eggleton
(Photo: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
A new poem by David Eggleton.
Mr Explorer Douglas
Bird cries soar from shore to shore
You compass islands to hear surf roll.
Above iron pot’s steam, ranges writhe.
Blank spaces on charts mark this place.
My watch chain dangles time away.
I take bearings from raptors on the wing.
A kiwi digs with beak walking stick.
What does that rainbowed rain declare?
I was no more than a beetle click,
when I leapt up as a kite rattles,
and fell into my sprawled reflection.
When half of me rotted away, my soul
grew restless and flew to a mountain,
and perched there silent, over carrion.
The Friday Poem is currently edited by Chris Tse. Hera Lindsay Bird will be taking over as editor from September. Please send poems to info@thespinoff.co.nz.
David Eggleton
David Eggleton lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin and was the Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate between August 2019 and August 2022. His Respirator: A Laureate Collection 2019 -2022 was published by Otago University Press in 2023. He co- edited Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand, published by Massey University Press in 2024, and his most recent collection, Lifting the Island: Poems, is out now from Red Hen Press (USA). Links: https://redhen.org/book/lifting-the-island/
