Poem 32

A cliff face on the Utuhina stream in Rotorua … I wonder if kids still go there … for those who needed a bigger challenge further upstream was Suicide Leap – it scared me to even look at the drop from there …

The White Caves

My brother jumped
    then I jumped
preferring to impale myself on air
than face the climb down

trout were blue shadows
you couldn't touch
no matter
what your velocity

you jumped into fish
but there was only water
    cold lime-like
forcing itself up under your eyelids

I stood in the shallows blinded
the others climbed higher
kicking out footholds in white clay
jumping
          returning

at the end of the afternoon
there were boys scattered so high up the cliff
    they stood against blue sky
smeared
           and yodeling