These herbal sleeping pills Just make me feel stoned or drunk on green ginger wine Happy but no closer to unconsciousness than the many nights before this one Spent mustering my thoughts and losing sheep Today worked its little miracles around me just to prove my overseer-cynic Wrong, wrong, wrong I was positively chased down the street by good things trying to make their magic mark Pity my mind gets stuck back at the seabed weighted to the bottom in a leaden aqualung dying to break the surface and breathe the fresh air of the Present Caitlin Smith… Read the rest

The full moon drew me round the bend of the waterfront Each step an affirmation taking my self back to family and food an hour and a half’s walk away This time I stop to sit at Hobson Bay’s steps by the Marina’s cradling arms Just to coalesce undress my resentment and throw each pocket-stored grievance out to sea Wished on a plane in Okahu Bay ‘A speedy recovery for my father and I’ Said I’d wait till it disappeared from the sky.… Read the rest

Magnetic light strip of Ponsonby Pulls me up Franklin by the hair of my teeth All illumination and sparklers this city is growing up social bum-fluff and parading baby merchandise name traces in the black night air 200 meters from home the rain starts its comfort campaign Softly at first Lightly dusting this heavy winder coat’s shoulders caressing my near-numb face and hair “There, there” consolation becoming more insistent as it cloaks it’s wet arms around me guiding me to the door Tane’s tears, say it’s OK to feel a loss wom’t deny it, pretend it away gestures and a sign that one of the Gods may care rain can be the only companion kissing it all better like the sweet surprise cup of tea selflessly brought to a bedside unasked in the morning Gaia’s random acts of kindness unbidded, unbidden that sudden shower’s present to salve and soothe a natural baptism to name the pain and make it all better again Caitlin Smith August 9th 2006… Read the rest

You like to laugh at those Exposed Treading water Waiting To be saved But then, sweetheart I am in this frame See? In the corner Sinking Ship-leaking Clinging to a false sense of (life) preservation a kiss so easily betrays Tasting comparisons with the past Dry cracked lips say more than words or good intentions Could he have done it sober?… Read the rest