Where the Wings Carry Us

1.

A watermelon
with the mud washed off,
round and green.
Taking a knife
I split it in two.

Ripples spreading outward.
A shag surfaces
at the centre of its circle.
Nearby a terrier
digs holes in the sand.

Could we go over
what you just said?
No, already
you put down your cup
and walk away.

2.

Now it’s midwinter.
A cloud of steam
from the Espresso machine
drifts over my table
and it begins to rain.

By the foreshore
an oystercatcher
strides through the water
its breastbone
just above the surface.

All those white objects
passing before my eyes;
small ghosts
I used to entertain
when I was a child.

3.

Agamemnon,
did he really
sacrifice his daughter?
Add it to the list
of things I disbelieve.

Low cloud at sunset,
its shadow cast
on a higher cloud.
Traffic on the highway
banked up for miles.

Distracted by news
of the latest bombing,
I try to wipe away
a spot of sunlight
on the kitchen bench.

Richard von Sturmer

Richard von Sturmer is a writer, performer and filmmaker who is well known for having written the lyrics to Blam Blam Blam’s “There is No Depression in New Zealand”. He is a teacher of Zen Buddhism and the co-founder of the Auckland Zen Centre. Slender Volumes is his tenth collection of writings and is on the Ockham NZ Book Award 2025 Poetry Longlist.