Thursday, August 12, 2010

AUCKLAND 10

Drama on Axis Bledisloe
Container Wharf, Waitemata
Harbour, early morning

Cars, all Toyota, come off
the Sanderling Ace, jade and white,
arrived overnight. These ships
just sneak in!

Parked, they resemble a school
of fish, all facing the water
they now leave behind, spat
from a metal whale's maw.

The tall yellow porters patrol
like inspectors; they add and subtract
building blocks, white and red
in the stack or with trucks.

As delicate as tweezers, they
lift and drop, remove, deposit
and I wonder, from this distance
why I can't see where drivers sit.

The ship, restrained by Lilliputian
ropes, barely tilts. Grey naval ships
slide across pearled water, jade
waters between the wharves.

An army helicopter hovers
like a wasp ; having seen
the mother-ship home, it
u-turns, buzzes east, out

to sea, away from the busy
platform, a hatchery
of vital exchange
mysterious journeys.

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