a flash of red
stop, butterfly
I’ll frame you for my shutter

                        but shy

she flitted to a higher plane

disconsolate I searched in vain
’til leaning on a lonely tree

                        I wept 

would you return to me?

dead straight road
north out of Kaitaia
past soggy paddocks
duck mother on the white line
(the grass is greener on the other side)
trailing tiny ducklings in front of
an unseeing driver

Flap! She’s winged
tinies scattered in the draught
no chance to stop
no way to rescue them
trucks thunder through
spattering mud
across the dark bitumen