meeting on kodrou st
plaka, athens, april 1994 by Peter Le Baige
meeting on kodrou st
plaka, athens, april 1994
he woke in the evening
with the past in his hands
a thread he could break
over his fingers.
tried it.
blood swelled the skin
as he pulled on it sharp
down to the bone.
it broke then like
web
the spider come apart
like a dream like a star.
getting up
he walked quietly
through his own mirror
felt its cold
as others long had
around him
she on the other
side of the glass
long expected him
her own thread breaking
like a word stopped
in mid-song
POET PROFILE
Peter Le Baige grew up on the east side of Te Wai o Taiki (the Tamaki Estuary), and now lives on the west side. Writing mostly about places and people in his life that have affected him, those he came across in his 25 years out of Aotearoa also figure in his poems. His published collections include: Breakers (1979), ‘Street hung with daylit moon’ (1983) and 'Blackbird in paradise' (March 2024). He used to regard his two cats as his left and right hands, and the estuary as his heart; now he finds himself only left-handed.