Time and the child - Hone Tuwhare

Time and the child
- Hone Tuwhare

Tree earth and sky
reel to the noontide beat
of sun and the old man
hobbling down the road.
Cadence -

of sun-drowned cicada
in a child’s voice shrilling:
… are you going man?
Where are going man where -
the old man is deaf
to the child.
His stick makes deep
holes in the ground.
His eyes burn to a distant point

where all roads converge … .
The child has left his toys
and hobbles after the old
man calling: funny man funny man

funny old man funny.
Overhead the sun paces
and buds pop and flare.



http://victorian.fortunecity.com/woodcut/829/tuwhare2.htm