The heart is a camera

In a dark red night,  in a light tight box
seconds develop into past particles, a dream of seizing time.
In the light tight box the world is closed
to sound & everything a picture.

The  heart sees in wide angles & thinks
in slow/fast shutter speeds
Each beat a click of the shutter
freezing a moment.
Freezing a movement.

The camera is a birthday gift, not once but twice.

The camera can break.

This could be a fact or myth,
it could be nothing at all-the heart can think for itself.

On a night like a yellow apple, 
the air is purple and wanting,
the heart is electrical -give me thunder, give me lightning.
The heart is mechanical.  Give me grease.
Everything divides by one.

Give me a match,  a candle. 
Give me something to set this heart alight.

Give me a roll of film – B&W or colour,
Let me weave through the chamber
Let me follow your every move

If the camera is a room, the heart is also a room:

Sometimes the kitchen,
dishes left unwashed in the sink,
as if this lazy person left in a hurry. 
Sometimes the attic – furnished with paintings
of ships in stormy seas, an old naval uniform,
footsteps dragging across the floorboards after dark.
Sometimes a bedroom with light streaming
in through the half closed curtains
last night’s clothing strewn on the floor.

Sometimes the heart doesn’t know where to begin
Sometimes the heart is a second thought.

The heart is a confidential informant

The heart contains a small bird. That is to say
the heart is a bird cage.
The camera snaps the small bird in flight. 
Caught, captured. 
A bird in the heart is worth two in the bush.

The heart sees you, like the camera sees you.

It sees you & me

& I am firefly without wings
You are here, you are here
I take your photograph
My heart it sings,  it sings

Jo McNeice

Jo McNeice completed a MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington in 2013. Blue Hour, was published by Otago University Press, 2024. Her poems have been published in  Turbine|Kapohau, Sport, JAAM, Takahe and Mayhem. She lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

You can hear Jo read from Blue Hour here.