New Zealand, (b.1936; fl. 1998-present)
Meanwhile
- A house is being built
- A man is building a house
- A pig is being killed
- A man is killing a pig
- A bridge is being constructed
- A man carries a dead pig
- across the bridge
- on the other side of which
- a man is building a house
- The man building the house
- is Australian
- he says
- the man with the dead pig
- may not eat meat
- on his building site
- If he sits on the other side of the bridge
- and eats the pig there
- is that okay? (are the gods appeased?)
- The meating-eating labourers cannot work
- on the millionaire’s house
- (did I tell you he is a millionaire?
- No? well he is.)
- The builder shrugs & crunches crackling
- his pleasure vindicates the death of the pig
- (it was a wild one anyway and
- mauled sheep and ate lambs)
- The billionaire
- (yes, he has become richer since I began
- due to high interest rates
- and no taxes in the Cayman Islands)
- the billionaire sits
- among the profiles, scaffolding
- stacks of concrete blocks
- and rare native timbers.
- He eats a tofu burger.
About the Poet:
Penny Somervaille, New Zealand, (b.1936; fl. 1998-present) is a poet and short fiction writer. Somervaille was born in Java, but grew up in England. She came to NZ in 1957 and has lived here all her adult life. She graduated with a (mature) BA in English and Writing Studies at the University of Auckland in 2009.
Somervaille has been published in Sidestream, Live Lines, PotRoast, Blackmail Press, and The Bridge Project on NZEPC.
An active public reader of her own work, Somervaille, appears regularly in a variety of poetry reading venues around Auckland. She was an MC for Poetry Live, the weekly open mic forum started by David Mitchell in 1980 and now located at The Thirsty Dog in Auckland. Her book,Small Decisions Pennyroyal Press (2015) is her first published collection. [DES-04/18]
Additional information:
- Small Decisions, poetry by Penny Somervaille – a collection of poems written over a period of 15 years or more, dealing with memory and ageing and responses to works of art.