Hello Great North Road
my old friend
I wonder how far north
you travel?
The road goes west
starting two doors up from the Dog’s Bollocks
ending at sunset.
So many sunsets
Facebook and Instagram couldn’t contain them.
So many yellow lines, white stripes
there’s hardly a Valiant left
to defy them.
Now the years overtake us.
Visits as a boy to Uncle Bruce and Aunty Lindy
in their K’Rd council flat
led me to the greatness of the great north
whipping its dusty tail up to the skyline
of Reinga.
Yet why do I see your
darkness as silence my friend?
You’re a sleek black eel
pumping blood all the way to Karekare,
to Muriwai, to Bethells, to Piha,
and our vehicles surf the surges
back to K’Rd, back and forth, LOL,
rocking up our shock absorbers
and surfboards.
Keep bringing the waves
Great North Road. Keep saving
the whales! Keep the toheroas shining
tucked away from spades in sandy bolt-holes.
Smile in your cars and honk honk honk
on the Great North Road.
my old friend
I wonder how far north
you travel?
The road goes west
starting two doors up from the Dog’s Bollocks
ending at sunset.
So many sunsets
Facebook and Instagram couldn’t contain them.
So many yellow lines, white stripes
there’s hardly a Valiant left
to defy them.
Now the years overtake us.
Visits as a boy to Uncle Bruce and Aunty Lindy
in their K’Rd council flat
led me to the greatness of the great north
whipping its dusty tail up to the skyline
of Reinga.
Yet why do I see your
darkness as silence my friend?
You’re a sleek black eel
pumping blood all the way to Karekare,
to Muriwai, to Bethells, to Piha,
and our vehicles surf the surges
back to K’Rd, back and forth, LOL,
rocking up our shock absorbers
and surfboards.
Keep bringing the waves
Great North Road. Keep saving
the whales! Keep the toheroas shining
tucked away from spades in sandy bolt-holes.
Smile in your cars and honk honk honk
on the Great North Road.
