3rd place, 2019 Robert Burns Poetry Competition - unpublished section

Sunday 17 March 2019

I followed my grief to Christchurch this weekend

To the East Side, where lie my forbears,

progenitors of six generations from English migrants

I put flowers there, wiped dust from their plaques

and thought about words I could not yet say.

Across Ruru Road,

machinery,

and many men, busy at their work.

Digging graves for fifty.