Martha Morseth, Dunedin writer, has had poems published in popular magazines and literary journals including the Listener, Landfall, Sport, Takahe, JAAM, Bravado and in on-line journals and anthologies, as well as in her collection, Staying Inside the Lines.
Reclaiming the Space
I’ve decided to reclaim the footpath,
not all of it,
just a narrow strip of concrete
I fleetingly occupy occasionally.
I will stand my ground by walking staunch,
refusing to give way to broadshouldered young men
marching towards me in collision course.
I’ll no longer step into the gutter
when morphing teenage ectoplasm materialises or
single-minded, Cyclops businessmen
power down on me.
Under my arm I’ll carry an umbrella
with a long metal tip.
I’ll point it like a trident and say,
‘Oh, I am sorry’
when I skewer a miscreant who doesn’t stay left,
someone who doesn’t obey the rules,
someone who is reluctant
to give an old lady some room.
