Poem 359

From my first folio so written before I left Hamilton … Waikato University at the end of the seventies had a small counter culture made up equally of hippies and punks … this friend was on the house truck end of things … Agni is the Hindu fire deity …

( I like the red/gold/blue two sides of the evening sky, and the rough cut planet alight with spark cities … )

A Bit Witchy

Darlene feeds the fire
that burns rubbish in the bin
food for Agni 
                           she says
Agni wants you

strips of green tape
writhe like fluorescent snakes
shrivel over the bin's edge
seeking escape

Darlene
which of the sky's sides is yours
layers of red gold fleecy
Hollywood clouds and the first star
or simply the dark deep blue
bottomless pit
glancing off the side of the world?

or check this black husk of paper
as it lifts from the fire like a rough cut planet
alight with spark cities
a few feet a few seconds
and it sinks home to the flames
that flicker out like yellow hair
in a wind
food for Agni 
                            Darlene says
moving too close her own hair
glowing red in the light
a few stray wisps smoke
and are gone

Darlene
you can frighten sometimes
when you feed your fire on a cold night coming
stuffing paper into its gullet
until it chokes
belching thick smoke
then dances up and eats
and licks round the bin for more
more 
             sings Darlene
food for Agni

Agni wants you