There’s a man trapped inside a bottle
He can’t breathe, can’t move
One eye is bulging out, pressed against the bottle’s neck
Thick glass narrowing further, vice-like, around his brow
Force-fed veal calf constricted
Oh God!
Do I smash it with a hammer to let him out?
- he might think I’m trying to kill him
How on earth did he get his body [...]

Window-lickers
Looking for fun
Looking in from the outside
Noses pressed, and steaming, to glass
Hands cupping either side of straining eyes like racehorse blinkers
Attempting to shield from the sun’s glare
They will not be distracted
Candy sweet temptations
Salivating strangers gather to taste
What they perceive as forbidden fruit
What is denied becomes so highly prized , It’s irresistible
Theirs is such conspicuous privilege
Always [...]

Am I curious enough to want your child?
When she and I will soon stand, hand in tiny hand, silently watching as they bury your remains at Waikamete
Shot down in battle
right between bloodshot eyes
blindsided.
Hadn’t sensed the sniper, at zero paces, for years creeping beside you
Awarded the Enlarged Purple Heart. The blackened liver of dishonour
for services to [...]

There’s a hungry concrete-muncher
eating up the motorway one row of houses down
Don’t tell the council, or, the cone stackers in their reflective vests,
that the freshly painted white road markings are all pointing
in the wrong direction
and I’ve had a gutsfull
Trees leer over the fence
listening for snippets of wiser recollections from their youth
Cabbage trees stick their heads [...]

I’ll see you this day – and raise you another
Pare the fruit of it with a barter-tucked flick knife
- even eat the pips
I’ll try not to let the juices soil your outdoor chairs
- but I’m not making any promises
Yellow and white daisies look like wobbly child brides
Ripped up and cutoff while bathing naked in Nixon [...]