Southampton
I struck up a conversation on the plane
as we descended to Heathrow
the guy sitting next to me Aussie
asked where I was staying
and whether I wanted to meet up for a drink
he gave me his phone number
I was too gauche just to leave it at that
so though I didn’t want to
I rang him later to cancel the date
in the course of my excuses I mentioned
going south to see some cousins near Portsmouth
I’m going to be down that way myself
maybe we should get together there instead?
I didn’t say yes
but ended up giving him the address
just in case
when I arrived at the train station
my cousins told me he was already there
it ruined my visit
he sat there like a gargoyle
finally I realised I’d have to go
there seemed no other way
to get him out
so we went off in his car to see the sights
inside the local church
he wouldn’t put coins in the collection box
I asked him why not?
he said why would he?
I told him my cousins suspected
he might be an axe murderer
after that he dropped me off at the station
and we went our separate ways
but what was it all about?
was he grooming me for something
or just lonely in a foreign land?
who knows? I don’t
Jack Ross is the author of four novels, five books of short fiction, and six poetry collections. A seventh, Tesseract, is due out in late 2026. He was the managing editor of Poetry New Zealand (now Poetry Aotearoa) from 2014-2020, and has edited numerous other books, anthologies, and literary journals.
He retired from his job teaching creative writing at Massey University in 2022, and lives with his wife, crafter and art-writer Bronwyn Lloyd, in an old Art Deco house in Auckland, New Zealand.
