Mostly Black

• Published date: 18 June 2022
• Publication title: Mix, The

dark beaks, polished talons, feathers, a black

regime drenched in the melancholy black

of rains that took tides further towards black.

From hinges of sunlight hung blocks of black,

and risen humps of islands were matt black.

Cinders sailed from bush burn-offs, carbon black.

Beads on antimacassars gleamed jet black.

Through pine’s silent groves possum eyes shone black.

Above tar-seal a melted rainbow turned black.

At disintegration of monolith black,

green, all that blue can be, then back to black.

Green of pounamu lost under lake’s black.

Blackout’s lickerish taste, blood-pudding black,

and midnight mushrooms gathered from deep black.

Tattoos drawn with bent nib and homemade black.

Batman’s mask, a dull sheen of cue ball black.

The primeval redacted, placed in black

trash bags, or else turned out as burnt bone black.

Pull on the wool singlet of shearer’s black,

for blacker than black is New Zealand black,

null and void black...