blackmail press 17
Harvey Molloy
new zealand
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Harvey Molloy lives in Wellington where he teaches at Porirua College. His poems have appeared in Bravado, Jaam, NZ Listener and Takahe. In 2004 he won the New Zealand International Poetry Competition.
Gemini spacewalk

I was out there
with the flag

and the mission instructions
for the e.v.a.

on my sleeve
but I fell behind schedule

caught by the blue arc
of sky and ocean

against the black
a hurricane-stirred

cappuccino cloud
covered the gulf of mexico

except for the transparent
flea of the florida peninsula

even the small
drops of ice

from the coolant tank
formed perfect worlds

and I thought
of trey’s letter

from the 365 us marine
helicopter squadron

a fortnight spent cleaning the aircraft
cleaning weapons

watching dolphins and gulls
chase the ship

days spent writing letters
thinking of mary jane

listening to the shirelles
thinking of home

then back ashore to the hot tent city
of the Da Nang airbase

the talk of operation
rolling thunder

towns with colonnades
balustrades

overlooking wide
rain-soaked boulevards

that could be louisiana!
just think now

the space
between hanoi and new orleans

would be how many
arc minutes

measured by the fingers
of my outspread hand?




Learning the t

braided light
from the garden’s abandoned bath
outside the room’s single window
danced like spinning skipping ropes
across the ceiling

I saw those waves of braided light
catch your mirrorwork skirt
lying on a carpet covered with pins
left by the room’s previous tenant

in the quiet afternoon
I found the soft Hindi t of your name
while your hands spoke an accent
I have yet to learn and will never master

I’d left Chaucer’s Troilus & Criseyde on the back porch
the wind took the book over the far mountains




Script kiddy

phones i love them all
pcs too & macs
especially macs running OS X
because OS X is really unix
you know?