harbour lights
my father’s blue eyes shining
with tears he won’t admit to and which
we can’t see up here on the after deck
of the Picton ferry he is looking up waving
from the wharf we are waving back and calling
though we know he can’t hear us all day
we drove to catch the ferry that is taking us
away he got us there in the nick of time
triumphant now as the boat pulls out green water
between us up here and down there
he waits until he can’t see us any longer
then tangles with rush hour traffic
on the motorway north two semis give him
trouble but he pushes on a cup of tea
at Levin then the four hours to home
a long day when the Valiant pulls in
my mother gets up and they talk into the night
drinking cocoa we’re over the strait and safe
in the next house on the journey to Canada but
I remember my father’s blue eyes and the tears
we couldn’t see against the late sun my father
driving north as we sailed south the last time
I saw him his blue eyes full of tears
*
Michele Leggott was the Inaugural New Zealand Poet Laureate 2008-09. Her most recent publications are northland (Pania Press, 2010), Mirabile Dictu (Auckland UP, 2009) and a CD of selected poems, Michele Leggott / The Laureate Series (Braeburn/Jayrem 2009). She coordinates the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc) with Brian Flaherty at the University of Auckland.
Helen Lowe said:
A lovely poem, deeply moving.