Funeral

There’s a Tui feeding in the Kowhai tree

The death notice in the paper

Spoke of a short illness

My imagination turned hollow

Somewhere else tonight someone is crying

I don’t feel the need for solitude

Some form of the presence of the living

Is welcome

The people walking past my window

Aren’t seeking to interrupt me

I follow their heads bobbing along outside the fence

The heads hear the Tui feeding in the Kowhai tree

For the moment they and I feel as one

And are gone again

July 2003