The Esmeralda Visits Wellington
From our high-up window in sunshine
we look down on fluffy white mist
filling the harbour.
Something black is disturbing the whiteness.
Two dark vertical shafts
are pushing their way through.
Tips of masts take shape
then cross-trees
with sails furled
a foredeck
an afterdeck.
Thrust out from the mist
a newborn galleon
slides free
slipping across a surface
that’s as smooth and blue as the sky.
Biography Judith Dell Panny
Judith Dell Panny, retired secondary and tertiary teacher, is the author of books on Vincent O’Sullivan (2015), C K Stead (2009), John Bevan Ford (2004), Patricia Grace (1997) and Janet Frame (1992, 1993, 2002). Unfurling, a volume of poetry, appeared in 2003. A short story collection is in preparation. She lives in Palmerston North with her husband, is the mother of an adult son and daughter and has one grandson.
