Time and Tide
Listen to poem:
In time shadows in an old windy shed
are names of sojourners who've passed this way;
now my wandering boot does older tread
where I passed on a long forgotten day.
I see their faces on wall and jetty
drinking beer, watching the wind and tide turn,
where on horizon across a dark sea
aerodrome Air Squadron lights brightly burn.
Into its riptides we dived bombed its depths
where over the skyhawk war birds had flown,
and from its pull clung to those ocean steps
in the big drag of clays, sand and mudstone.
Now time and tide fade on this hidden cove
where beneath the waves the taniwha rove.
Written: December 1991
*taniwha in Maori folklore are sea creatures
depicted as serpents or dragons with fiery eyes.
On occasion I saw a few people swimming
there that fit that description but no serpents.
*Skyhawks were RNZAF combat fighter jets.
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