Eucalyptus At Waimea Schools

I tramp around my self-imposed discipline

across the road at the recently built Baptist Arc
oblivious to the Saturday morning traffic cacophany
the poor haggle over boot-market prices

a thrush bounces among brown leaves beneath

pyrocanthia arches.........harvesting his plunder from
designer plantings berries to bring in the birds
on past Waimea College then the Intermediate

cock sparrows scratch furious under hung-over grey

an atmosphere-perfect sky for the Scotland/All Blacks
test fixture in Dunedin this afternoon -on the walkman
journalists Woods and Campbell discuss Biko and Mandela

flashing me back to Rolleston Ave where we marched

in opposition through Hagley Park while tour supporters
sloshing-beer-in-hand screamed obscenities from
Annie’s Sports Bar on Riccarton corner -where are they

now and what do they think? -straining lungs expand

under fragrant gums -beneath my trainers the crunch
of nut-caps -use it or lose it -after decades of hostilies
now an old friend pain never deserts and I’m glad of a new mantra

to rail against -to slow the pulse and resist the rush to anger.

 Rosemary Purse April 2000

© Rosemary Purse