Rites of Passage
We buffaloed in stampede to the frontier.
We hammered out bits of the Hammerklavier.
We hoarded, we boarded, we cursed, we accused.
We rang, then rang some more, we knocked for news.
We thanked heaven for small mercies, for what it could manage.
We raised sail, we hovered, our dinghy keeled over.
We knelt in our socks to check for damage.
We used what we had, we wrung our garments dry.
We took to the milking shed, we cleaned, and we mended.
We wounded a wild boar, then a charging stag, then the nation.
We guarded ourselves, we stagnated, we were defended.
We harped on, we sought out relations, we went to action stations.
We factored, we counted, we coughed, we were elated.
We rose from our backwater, we picked a side.
We warned the dancers, we tasted sorrow, we got blottoed.
We uttered thanks, we took chances, we borrowed.
We shook out a flag, and attached it to the truck.
We absolved ourselves, and to the bitter end rode our luck.
We declared it over, we kissed, we made up.
We whispered, we commiserated, we delegated.
They knew we were true, they fanfared us through.
David Eggleton lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin and was the Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate between August 2019 and August 2022. He is a former Editor of Landfall and Landfall Review Online as well as the Phantom Billstickers Cafe Reader. His The Wilder Years: Selected Poems, was published by Otago University Press in 2021 and his latest collection Respirator: A Laureate Collection 2019 -2022 was published by Otago University Press in March 2023. He is a co-editor of Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand, published by Massey University Press in 2024.
