I'm allowed to be shocking and young and violent
Mary told me so while she ironed
My Bloody Valentine oozed from the laptop
a slab of aluminium on an upside-down quilt
book illustrations done with a knife
two young men held a cat and a photo of one
in the background a teepee on fire
making things with each other
boiling down the evidence to skulls and jewellery
tattoo still-life models
these marks where I bit myself free of memory
bloody teeth when you saved me
ate through my dirt
Tom Sawyer
Him by the Mississippi
and me near the Waikato River.
He liked to trawl
his neighbourhood befriending
ragamuffin children,
and so did I.
Tom Sawyer ran away.
I planned the same,
but local wanderers
curious, followed.
Some toddler needed their mother,
we had to trail back along our street
to find a parent.
Bringing home stragglers,
thinking our sky stretched further.
Lived half-inside books
devoted to invention.
Later found myself by Twain's river.
Friends drew me overseas,
international angels of the internet.
Our voices flying - such grins.
Mark Twain's name from a riverboat,
two fathoms meant you were safe.
Pairs of us running away
together where they lived;
keeping each other afloat
such journeys of words.
New York City's the place where
1.
a vampire dressed as a ten year old
drank cider in a blue neon bar
this corporate pilot with jet pix for bait
while the barmaid once from Waitomo
pogoed the length of 100 + years
streets roar all evening with unknown names
leave your origin at the train station
the crowd may call you anything
yellow taxis swarm for money
faces float by with such geography
the hotel front desk guy in lavender
pedestrians with one eye on the trash bins
Soho red pistol earring boutique
bookshop cafe with the smallest tables
New Zealand accent provoked socialising
this city swallows every morsel offered
digested NYC condoms and pistachio pastry
Chinese restaurant pushing drunks out the door
a Lower East Side lawn caged fear
cafe doors the yawns of monsters
(he warned her she'd be eaten alive)
post office queue woman chewed gum
black sass in all-white stretch dazzle
over a hillock in a sidewalk garden to eat
mailing creatures to friends
bulged the cardboard box a little
perspex shields opened and closed
outside the blue post-box and graffiti
homeless people draped in utensils
taxi driver with his tongue between his teeth
2.
MOMA fed me revolutionary paint
sculpture of a woman falling into water
'I kissed a man
during Andy Warhol's Kissing film,'
someone wrote with felt-tip pen
a cafe couple fired soft questions at each other
bright pink cattle pasted up the stairs
nine statements chalked by people
from a country at war - on video
the dark room besides full of screens
nonchalant walls as ready as not knowing
hunker down banks with wrap-around dark windows
a rabbit-man met by Grand Central's clock
made me a local with a subway ride
punk rock history unreeled behind us
deli food and a discussion about guns
lost then found our way to Strawberry Fields
the rickshaw driver bargained with using silence
glitter paintings appeared holy
in an artist's 72nd St railway apartment
lantern flames outside the Dakota
overlooking Imagine Circle and guitars
Central Park a mecca of walking
moved the hydrangea to see a brass plaque
Isaac Newton's portrait in Pete's Tavern
the oldest NY bar black and white
poetry luncheon sat beside a geneticist
I cried later to hear the Brownings
recorded by Broadway stars with music
the cold counter plastered in curved posters
discovered a Jack Kerouac school flyer
disembodied poetics on yellow and red
in the Bowery Poetry Club
thought about Miles in France emailing
'everyone's insane there as far as I know'
cab drivers dither as if they're the strangers
a Russian manicurist didn't take cards
one taxi nearly drove off with my bag
I smacked his boot and swore murder
people across the way in cafe sunshine
bundled the street into our pockets
ATM machine shuffles money into a stack
hailing a ride from the roadside
discovered a spiked leather creature
kindly nodded - back seat of a cab
while Chinatown held slower directions
then a golden bank foyer on Park Avenue
a pizza box can get some people in anywhere
3.
tall New York Times bought on the corner
took home some sections to give away
left a bag of change and lilies in the room
dollar notes strewn on the bed
air conditioner's rattle silent
carpeted hotel corridors lit out
when departure descended like a bat
so many said to stay with them
I was offered a job in a city garden
then cave walk and wheel to the bus
cellphone died on the ride to Newark
pooled places wide with railings and windows
leaving NYC the finish and a start
contradictions in the way of the view
enormous grey bridges and stretched water
a roll of knowing too much to say
kept in the dark of my skull camera
wake a talk while the sighs play shoo ba doo honey
- title a line from the Lou Reed song, Walk on the Wild Side.
