Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Tuesday Poem: Today, there are twenty-three

Dead leaves
scratch the city street.

The sky is light-weak,
wearing another winter’s
manifest on a sleeve
abstained by blue.

The street’s address
is solid Golden Mile,
where Versace, Gucci,
and Swarovski sup with
the Saatchi brothers.

It is voting season too,
the season of evasion,
sanitised reports,
lies disguised as promises,
squabbles about deciles
of squalor, poverty, jobs,
housing, inequality;

during which politicians
will make the brothers
even richer.

On Golden Mile
beggars squat.
Today, there are twenty-three
between Manners Street
and Parliament.

Dead leaves
scuffle round their feet.



We are just coming into New Zealand's winter and we have a general election in September. Hopefully (or perhaps not), the poem says it all.

I'm also the hub Tuesday Poem editor this week, and the poem I've chosen is "Quail Flat, 1960" by Kerry Popplewell. Check it out at the main Tuesday Poem blog, and don't forget to check out the poems in the sidebar as well! 

4 comments:

  1. Oh I really like the title of this, and how it meanders to the heart of it at the end. Striking images and words. Very good post -- thank you!

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