Poem 261

Another ‘name’ poem (see Poems 135, 203 and 226) … Rick was a bikie, I worked with him as a chainman on the city council when I was seventeen …

Rick

Here's a photo of Rick
sitting in the sun
reading a book about drugs
                                                   he told me 
about all the over the counter things
you could get like Avil Retards
and how this guy he knew spent the night thinking
he was a boiled egg
terrified someone was going to crack him 
with a teaspoon

Rick was missing half a finger he'd caught
in the chain of his Norton
he'd hold the plumb bob still as if gravity
somehow tripled under his hand
and say see no good any more 
too much drugs

he had a way with people
a kind of politeness that was surprising
he just laughed the morning he announced
he thought he had the clap
and laughed again three weeks later
when walking bandy-legged 
he said he definitely
had the clap

I was called back to work the summer
while he was in hospital
when he came out he told us he'd had
his jaw wired together
and lost some teeth
and had this plate put in his skull
after Calvin Rukuhia hit him over the head
with a shotgun
                            I said 
but Rick why would Calvin Rukuhia 
want to hit you over the head
with a shotgun?

he looked coy dropped his eyes
and said
                well
I was trying
to shoot him with it