SUPER FLUMINA BABYLONIS
Super
flumina Babylonis.
Blue
tongue-flicking
vipers’ bugloss, yellow
pokers of mullein
waving like Longinus’ spear,
saffron
orange
California poppy eschscholzia brought
on the
boots of long-gone gold prospectors.
Waimakariri
Rakaia
Waitaki
Three
jade swords piercing the side
of a long
Waitaha woman in a green mantle,
where in
river-wombs somnambulant
the eel ol’ grey
Papa Satan twists
beneath white sky reflected from
Antarctica.
Jezebel
in the vineyard of Naboth, eh?
Send OCD
Pilate some Sunlight soap,
he’s got
a lot of postcolonial dirt under his nails –
been there since his great, great
granddaddy’s time.
Published in Manifesto Aotearoa: 101 political poems. Eds Philip Temple & Emma Neale. Otago University Press, 2017
Published in Manifesto Aotearoa: 101 political poems. Eds Philip Temple & Emma Neale. Otago University Press, 2017
Comments
Post a Comment