Poem 275
This comes from a walk I took from Miramar crossing under the airport to pick up the car from a garage in Kilbirnie … not exactly an epic hike but images from it stuck with me …
( I like that Rongotai is both the airport and the school the boys come from, I like the uns in under the runway the tunnel and the ‘ea’ dipthongs in beneath the heavy tread and sweats inside dreadlocks, also the way alliteration lends cadence and cohesion to the last six lines … )
Rongotai
Under the runway the tunnel is full of schoolboys the whirring gears of their bikes they flick out cigarettes and brave talk shadowed beneath the heavy tread of the planes Friday afternoon the road gang sweats inside dreadlocks steps aside to watch the roller press steam from the juicy tar a jet hovers in soundlessly touches ground arrives again in sound for a full minute pummelling the housed hills we in the southern suburbs live with the noise turn our TVs up observe a respectful silence as someone passes over to Australia