Poem 362

It’s true I would have gone but not happily … when I see those old films of soldiers hanging out the portholes wild with excitement as they sail off I always picture myself lying on a bunk inside groaning ‘I’m going to die’ … it’s a lot easier these days to ‘just say no’ …

All I Know

is I would have been in the Wellingtons
if I'd signed up in 1915
                                                and the Wellingtons
went up the hill in the late afternoon
and nine out of ten of them are still
being washed down in the rains
every winter
                         white chips of boys from Thorndon
Newtown Miramar bones built
on New Zealand milk

and this house here
                                         is old enough
to have seen one going out the back door
that's just a picture window now
and I'm young enough for my wisdom teeth
to be working their way up
through Turkish soil

all I know
is I would have joined

all she knows is take
      the toys away from the boys