Lifeboat

‘A winning reputation as a tourist destination.’
‘The greenest lifeboat in the world.’
Close the shoreline? DoC defend us!
Chop their arms off when they try
to climb aboard, lest all alike be lost?

Wakatipu wake with sewage in his mouth,
Queenstown slide off his lap into the lake,
the monorail buckle under the weight of visitors,
King Kong swallow his delectable actress,
the banks collapse, the river flood, some war begin?

Cilla McQueen
from Fire-penny, Otago University Press, 2005

Prescient . . . from the early eighties. Cilla

Cilla McQueen MNZM lives in Motupōhue, Bluff, at the southern tip of the South Island.  An artist, teacher and former Poet Laureate, her latest collections of poetry are Qualia (Maungatua Press), Poeta and In a Slant Light (both from Otago University Press).

Poetry Shelf is hosting another festival season of Playing Favourites. Poets have selected a poem of their own that they love, usually previously published.