trickery

1

 

sunflowers

 

          flop forward

 

and the moist grass fidgets

 

 

         i take to the beach

 

where footprints dissolve

 

    cliffs disassemble / monuments of homes

 

              collapse in shadows

 

                   a magician sleeps

 

2

 

        summer’s trickery

 

pulls at the ears of rhododendrons /

 

             livelihoods

 

run their distance / rooms

 

           no longer rotate with the sun

 

                 the road cambers right

 

                  and ends up frothing

 

                         into the sea

 

3

 

a cave

 

        covered in clay-painted hands

 

picasso-scratched dreams         opens to

 

migratory birds         with the torsos of men

 

the winged appendages of past pursuits /

 

         i braille walk

 

               the naked contours

 

      of half-finished images

 

                     then sink

 

           into a layer of soft-crumbling rock

 

4

 

the magician

 

             best known for his exploits on water

 

                                stands alone

 

                      giddy with hangers-on

 

   juggling light years

 

                small planets in their bubbles

 

 

faces fade

                       in and out

 

         signifying intakes of breath

 

           a vista timecapsuled in a mirage

 

                  the noise of peaches melting on trees

 

                             lupins

 

                         splitting their pods

 

                               ***

summer’s solstice

 

welcomes the hordes in animal skins

 

who take to the waves

 

hunting for hapuka

 

5

 

                 my curtains

 

                      smack at flies

 

i’ve taken to unpicking mirrors

 

the smiles / the grimaces

 

i’ve stuffed your tourist dolls

 

into the magician’s hat

 

6

 

bird families

 

using fingernails

 

      swing amongst macrocarpa

 

               the pregnant females

 

        flightless and

 

                        nocturnal

 

wash their bellies in rock pools

 

        they show off

 

                 the promise of things

 

                 the resurgent sun

 

                 the return of communal hours

 

i’ve learnt

to take off my coat

without being seen

 

              i hang out

              on both sides of the road

              walk transparently

 

through heavy foliage

 

paddocks

 

couples lying with statues

 

 

        i’ve learnt

 

to alter the night lights

 

            of my clock

***

 

                     close to the regenerative edge

 

                        against a red-punctured ceiling

 

a kereru

 

              skydives through fractures in clouds

~ Iain Britton

 

Since 2008, Iain Britton has had collections of poems published by Cinnamon Press, Interactive Press, Oystercatcher Press, Lapwing Publications, Kilmog Press, plus three pamphlets by Greendoor Publishing, Beard of Bees Press and Like This Press. A new collection of poems will be published by Kilmog Press in 2014 and Rufus Books in 2016.