Pulling Ragwort, for 50 Cents an Hour

The first person to descend
on Mars will find
at the dusty foot
of the lander

ragwort.
And when we finally
get to a distant nebula
it will be discovered

that new-born stars
are ragwort in a swampy mist—
next to a flying saucer
of dry cow shit.

And when we die
and if there truly is
an almighty
God

he will be sitting
in his all-grazing glory
like a bumblebee
on summer ragwort.

---

Michael Hall lives in Dunedin. He has had poems published recently in Landfall and Turbine | Kapohau; another is forthcoming in the Listener.