poetry

Australia vs. New Zealand

Australia vs. New Zealand

we lumped them before we left:
Australia-and-New-Zealand
countries with the Union Jack,
Southern Cross, English speakers
tea, cricket, rugby, and the queen

later I mention this to a Kiwi
and she’s surprised we would equate them
(which further surprises me)
although now we understand

Australia: hot as blazes
and on fire
blue oily eucalyptus haze everywhere
a massive, unending country
with an almost empty middle of wild desert
mostly flat, with death lurking everywhere:
crocs sharks snakes stingers –
you have to keep the children close –
a tough landscape breeds stout-hearted people
with a ready wit
to take you down a peg
they’ve also got mammals falling out their ears
and the brassiness of a country
built on convict labor –
g’day

New Zealand: pack your puffy even in summer
the Long White Cloud’ll get you
the forest is mostly gone
and the toothy animals were never here
nothing can eat you,
almost not one thing can harm you,
and children roam about the bush on their own
folks ask with genuine self-effacing humor
oh, my, you’re a long way from home –
how’d you come to hear about us?
we’re just a little place
(they’ve no swagger to speak of)
underlying everything is volcano and earthquake
to further humble you –
you’re just a blip in this tiny unstable ocean,
so far away only a bat could make it
Kia ora! they say
pressing the bridge of their nose against yours
this is a place where everyone thinks
about their kaupapa and whakapapa
where people identify with fern fronds and forest birds
where everyone speaks in two tongues
and lives in two worlds

poetry

Navigating Botswana

Navigating Botswana

we sniff out water
like all the other animals:
moist must of algae and clay
true reflection of sky
(not just mirage)
dark sepia of saturated soil
bright green of a drinking plant

they lead us to our rendezvous
with stork and zebra
elephant and giraffe
impala and kudu
even vultures gulping what’s left
in this dried-out land

we search out
the flush toilets and working sinks
cold fizzies and St. Louis cans
hot showers and cold swimming pools
coffee tea delta panhandle Boteti
our veins pulled to whatever else still flows
through these deepest of dry sands