Moments In Waitarere - New Year 2015 Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Moments In Waitarere - New Year 2015



I was in the 4-Square at Waitarere
Buying a Dom-Post and an icey-pole
When I lost it and bought ‘Vs Moments'.
It promised a Cinematic View
On Fashion and Culture
With specials on Uma Thurman and Kirsten Dunst.

Kirsten tries to looks louche
But looks spoilt and blasé
Among the marble in the photo-shoot.
Apparently she gave her cats cat-nip
And they went ape-shit.

Outside on the bench, I sort of
Half suck, half buck teeth razor
My orange-lemon paddle-pop
And glance between Kirsten's
Santa Monica Mansion
And the assembled beach raff
With their bulging shorts and bonhomie.
A bleary, ouch-tanned gaggle of ordinaries
Pose for a cell-phone moment:
‘A real Kiwi Summer Photo, eh? '

And I turn to look at the 10-something
Blonde-braided pig-tail perfection
Who I had seen pirouetting on the beach
In her black swimming costume with the gold stripe
Faultlessly leaping and twirling
Carefully practised ballet steps from
Gillian's Modern, Tap and Classical Dance School
In Palmy.

Kirsten's mum who looks after the cats
Says once we could look out to the beach
And say ‘isn't this the most beautiful place in the world?
But now our visitors train the balcony telescope
On the car lot beside Ernesto's
And say ‘I wonder what
Celebrities are down there today? '

As I finish my Frujo, I put my jandals back on
And the beautiful little girl becomes
Resentful of my stolen adoration.

Last night we walked back after
The rain had stopped and we had spent
Most of New Year's Eve playing
Some American game where you
Pick black cards that provide questions or blanks
And white cards that provide bizarre, rude or crude
Answers or fillers that you can slot in when your time comes -
In a tent as the southerly coming up the South Island
Blew itself out.

Some of the questions and answers
We didn't really understand
But we laughed a lot.
By midnight, it had cleared
And the revels at the Bowling Club ‘All Welcome'
Died down for the countdown
Five, four, three, two, one! ! ! !

Boom, cheers, fireworks - Happy New Year
And then ‘Auld Lang Syne', ‘A Scottish Soldier'
‘Dirty Old Town'.

It was a great!

And we walked home through the clear, dark night
Along the mud-sand drifted streets and their puddles
To our batch or beach cottage
As the sea celebrated
With its own momentous song.

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