Michele Leggott


olive

the day of the explosion they postpone
her arrival     two men walk out and agony
begins its clinch     we crouch by the radio
unable to help     thinking they could all be dead
hoping for a miracle twenty nine times
the size of a mountain in the eye of a needle
stitching blue heaven to green earth
let them walk out let them walk out alive

it is too dangerous     when they bring
her at last three days have gone by     each
more terrible than the one before     angels
look out of the eyes of this dog who is here
because I am blind and the world is huge
with possibility     we walk her in a raw wind
not knowing we shouldn’t     a mistake
that costs but is not the end of the world
under the dark mountain of sorrow

when they show the dust blasting
out of the portal for fifty seconds     we know
there is no hope but listen as machines prepare
to enter the shaft     today I learned how to comb
how to check ears eyes nose teeth and all over
for the baseline that is hands on a warm body

when the drill breaks through     the images
show that nobody reached the oxygen refuge
when they find a cap lamp still flickering
in the camera’s eye four and a half days
and a kilometre in      we go out for the first time
just around the block     only to hear
there’s been another explosion

dog     I hold my breath as you take us
into the world I can’t see     each day
a little further a little more command a little
sliver of hope under the dark mountain
where fear waits with its next fuse
and rescue is unlikely any time soon

from all over the world gear and advice
pours in     a third explosion sets the coal burning
deep underground     the trapped miners
become the lost men     the men who lost their lives
and finally the entombed men     now they gag the mine
starving the fire of oxygen and the violent language
of despair cries out upon us     threading the path
between light and darkness pain and rage
care and the undoing of everything we cared for

my dog how can you move with such grace
through these days     pulling sea and sky along
with you under the red-flowering trees     mixing it
up and down the road with all comers     this is not peace
but motion     ten thousand people looking up
the valley to a dip in the ranges while someone sings
You’ll Never Walk Alone     not peace but motion
what is her name they ask me and I say
she has been here since the start     her name is Olive

Michele Leggott's most recent publication is the chapbook northland (Pania Press, 2010). She coordinates the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc) with Brian Flaherty at the University of Auckland.
 
 
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