Poem 265
A poem for Lynette at a time when we were both reoriented in different lives, lamenting losing touch, thinking back on the years that are signal in anyone’s youth and then life, a sort of ‘first cut is the sweetest’ …
( I like the way each verse is a remembered birthday marking a phase in our relationship and growing up – first Rotorua, then university/teachers college halls of residence, then living together in our second and third years in Hamilton … reminds me too of our friends from those days (we threw good parties) … )
8pm 15 June
Round about this time you could expect to look out your window and see me sliding into the curb all wheels locked up on my mother's car it's your birthday I don't know where you are round about now you knocked on my door in the halls I had your presents ready everyone gave you a card tell me where to send it this was when the first person arrived never quite enough to dispel the depression that crept in before the start of a good party this time of night three years on if I had a number I'd call you to tell you we've been apart now for as long as we were together