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