*

ascensore | ascendant

lift-off    among the quiet houses
a scent of mint in steam    coming off
potatoes rolled in butter    evening
tilts shadows across the deck    warm air
knocking the blind    chicory leaves
and the benrina slicing fennel
or witloof into the huge bowl    lifting
a paw the bear sails on    the bowl of the sky
barely there    stars coming out
comet Atlas passing far to the south
beyond light pollutants    beyond
the astronomers sitting on hilltops    citizens
parked up with their naked eyes
and tripod cameras    all of them
rolling words like    perihelion
coma and apparition    sixty Moons) across the sky
imagine that    imagine this
subtending the truly extraordinary
houses by the sea    houses between hills
smokes ascending    steam rising
over pots and bowls    blackberry Atlas
into the maw    of the cosmic oven
what have you    what would you    where with all
the slicing and dicing    rolling and knocking
sixty moons across the sky    one drop
of dew falling    tears flowing backwards
forever uplifted    an endless assent
the minty breath of heaven on earth
a pot of new potatoes

*

 Michele Leggott

Michele Leggott was the New Zealand Poet Laureate 2007-09 and received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry in 2013. Recent collections include Mezzaluna: Selected Poems (2020) and Face to the Sky (2023).