seventy - painting by Kirsty Morison
Everything is so tender.
Which is kidney, which is steak
or mushroom?
It’s the best sleep she’s had in years
this latest hospital stay of his.
She stands in her sunroom
practises her choreography
in her blue dressing gown
my mother points to the sky
sings I’m goin’ nowhere
somebody help me
somebody help me get there.
*
On the table
seventy roses in a vase.
Under my feet a mat
crocheted from plastic bags.
A silver balloon on a stick
droops in a bunch
of dusty plastic hydrangeas.
My clothes are laid out
drying on furniture
like shadows of us all.
I think of her
eleven years old
how she ran to beat the rain
the road wettening
in lashes behind her.
*
In the last mouthful of stew
there’s a walnut.
She tells me that Stan
makes bacon from stingray wings
how he cures it and you’d never
ever know.
Hinemoana Baker is a writer and musician living on Wellington’s Kapiti Coast. Born in Christchurch, she has travelled widely, and was 2009 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence. Her first book, published jointly by VUP and in the US by Perceval Press, was matuhi | needle.
Hinemoana's writing has been published in anthologies and in the online literary journal 'Turbine' (2002, 2003, 2004, 2007). Her popular poem 'A Walk With Your Father' was chosen for 'Best New Zealand Poems 2004', the love poem 'One' for 'Best New Zealand Poems 2006' and 'Last Born' for 'Best New Zealand Poems 2008'.
Her new book 'koiwi koiwi' (bone bone) was launched to much deserved acclaim on Sunday night at the Ballroom cafe in Newtown, Wellington. I might be a little biased. Hinemoana is an old friend and the poem I've chosen began it's life as part of the 'Kissed' collaboration we did together. However, I just love that opening stanza, the leap from tenderness - which in a poem is not usually about steak and kidney. And all the other leaps she takes in the poem that suprise and delight me all the way through.
Hinemoana says:
The poem 'seventy' misquotes The Bee Gees' 'Saturday Night Fever'. It also misquotes my mother. It wasn't Stan, she reminded me. It was John. Sorry John.
For more Tuesday Poems visit the Tuesday Poem blog.
Belinda
Thank you for posting this poem - it's so beautifully detailed and so well paced.
Tim Jones
Thanks for posting this, Helen! I really enjoyed this poem, and I enjoyed the launch a lot too - although I had to scoot at the end, because I was running quite late by then. I want to track down Teresia's CD and/or book, too - it was a treat to hear her read, and to hear her and Hinemoana perform together. (In fact, all the performances were fantastic.)
Bill
Awesome!
maggie r-s
I think Stan is a great name for John - and I tasted that walnut... I shall interrogate my butcher next week about his bacon. Lovely poem.