3rd place, 2019 Robert Burns Poetry Competition - unpublished section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