Mary Cresswell
Rendezvous
Meet me at the corner
of Yearning and Lack
where the old red trams
rattled and clanked as they
took that last tight curve
where the line crests
the hill — you’ll remember
it well — we saw
the coast so far below
reaching for the horizon
almost successfully
and in front of us the track
crumbled to a stop in an
embarrassment of rust
Mary Cresswell is a Wellington poet who lives on the Kapiti Coast. Her book of satiric verse, Nearest and Dearest, will be published by Steele Roberts (Wellington: steeleroberts.co.nz) in June 2009.
Cresswell writes: “This poem started out as an exercise in word abuse, specifically of place names. It somehow ended up describing the railway line going north, one of my favourite views. I’m not sure how the trams got in — I never saw a Wellington tram myself and doubt they got to Pukerua Bay, even on the most effervescent of Friday nights — but they are quite welcome.”