blackmail press 37

Cameron Griffiths

New Zealand

Mere & Child - Penny Howard

index

The duplicity of constellations

In the evening my wife and I set off

along the shingle foreshore

at times holding hands,

at others

adrift     each held by a separate geography. 

She collects shells or glass-rock,

attuned to the details of objects,

the way they might be split

or joined together

….or how petrified wood

is merely a three-dimensional representation

   of what it once was.

When we reached the far tip of the bay,

there was no horizon between

   sea and sky,

and the duplicity of constellations

was cast all around me.

Light defined before an interpretative eye. 

A child with a pen joining dots.

Cameron hails from Hastings, NZ. He studied history at Waikato University and works as an Archivist. He recently spent time living and working in Papua New Guinea, and will be back there when Blackmail 37 is published. His poetry has appeared in Snorkel, Cordite, and Trout.