Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three November-December 2024
Aotearoa Poets and Writers Special Edition
Nice, poems by Jack Ross.
Nice
She was still crying when I walked into
the Tourist Information office
on the Square in Christchurch
what’s wrong? I asked
– that man who was in here before
he came in and I asked if I could help
he didn’t answer
just waited for my European colleague
to be free
– we’re not all like that
was all I could find to say
to the young Asian woman
another colleague hurried in
what’s wrong?
she outlined again what had happened
as the colleague fixed on me
a nuclear stare
not him he’s nice
no another man he’s gone
I didn’t know what else to say or do
just repeated
we’re not all like that
Kimono
It’s called the Kimono shop
by those of us
who frequent it
a warehouse-sized emporium
in Penrose
full
of every Japanese
garment and trinket imaginable
in long serried rows
some the wedding kimono
for instance
are priced steeply
others $5 or less
I bought some old postcards
and a guide to Japan
from 1966 the date
of some of those old
paperback novels I love to read
Kōbō Abe
Osamu Dazai
Shūshako Endō
it felt like an out-of-body experience
getting there
a labyrinth of twists and turns
guided by Kylie
our Australian-accented
cyborg street-guide voice
and then the dusty
perfumed smell of the kimono
where do they come from?
hand-sewn
each one unique
retrieved from dumps and skips
apparently
exotic ambassadors
spreading their own delight
Soft
We’re always on the lookout
for book-troughs and bookends
for my growing collection
this time it was
a revolving bookcase
one metre high
70 centimetres in diameter
I know because the shopkeeper
made me measure it
with her own tape-measure
in the middle
she prompted
not the side
this was to see if it’d fit into the car
the consensus was it wouldn’t
I wasn’t quite so sure
it didn’t
after that she got the owner on the phone
are you going up to Auckland
anytime soon?
yes he’s already bought it
I hadn’t but I wanted to
so he needs to have it delivered
we settled on next Sunday
they think you’re soft
confided Bronwyn as we drove away
– what do you mean?
the way she told you tilt it this way
not that way
as we tried to wrestle it in
the fact she didn’t think
you could back into that parking space
outside the shop
come to think of it
I did notice a bit of a village-idiot vibe
in the way they spoke to me
am I soft?
if so it doesn’t worry me
more interested in dreaming of all the books
I can squeeze into those shelves
© Jack Ross
Jack Ross is the author of six poetry collections, four novels, and five books of short fiction, most recently Haunts (2024). He was the managing editor of Poetry New Zealand from 2014-2020, and has edited numerous other books, anthologies, and literary journals. He retired from his job teaching creative writing at Massey University at the end of 2021, and lives with his wife, crafter and art-writer Bronwyn Lloyd, in Mairangi Bay on Auckland’s North Shore. He blogs at http://mairangibay.blogspot.com/.