Two Poems

South of the city

back then if you were a bad boy
Constable ‘Cruiser’ Boat 
who represented the large boot
of the law in the district

would with the approval
of the entire community
possibly including your parents
administer a kick up the arse

which remedy when applied
at the optimum juncture
was believed to eliminate 
all risk of recidivism

it never occurred to me
that this procedure might be emblematic
a metaphor at least for
some less physical intervention

I imagined instead a line of rueful 
or repentant youths bent over
while a vigorously diligent officer
performed his regrettable but necessary duty

Night boat

in winter the fishermen’s nets
freeze as hard as iron mesh
and catch just the deepest shoals

weird and inedible species
pulled up as if out of dreams
the worst nights bring

many too terrible to look at
are lowered back into the tide
while others haunt sleep for weeks

children awake in bed
with blankets over their heads 
revert to the womb’s uncertainty

where most glide serene
but some even mercy can’t relieve
struggle and thrash like bait

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Tony Beyer writes in Taranaki. His print titles include Dream Boat: Selected Poems (HeadworX) and Anchor Stone (Cold Hub Press).