OLD WIVES' TALE

New Zealand has a lot of Pisceans, Arieses and Taureans

because that’s when the cows are dry.

We Leos stand out like roaring sunflowers in a field

of pink and white clover,

the miniature yellow suns of dandelions shouting down

the daisies on the vert enamel

of a suburban lawn that thinks itself a colonial scale model

of Hampton Court.

It’s really too hot today to be mowing lawns, but we

do it anyway, to welcome spring.

We are adept at skim-spotting ‘Z’s in foreign books

they stand out

like the balls on a musterer’s dog, especially in proximity

to ‘N’s.

But really most of us are just trying to get our ducks

into some kind of syzygy.