Also

my mother cries all day
because soon it will be the world’s last day

imagine being a baby again!
I can’t do that but I must try

*

also: my dog’s bark
is the whole of the color blue

it is ice rising out of the sea
and all because he is pleased to see me


Bill Manhire was New Zealand’s inaugural poet laureate, and is also the founder of a well-known creative writing program at Victoria University of Wellington. He has published several volumes of poetry, including a Selected Poems with both Carcanet in the UK and Victoria University Press in New Zealand. A new collection, Wow, will be published later this year.