Mary Cresswell is from Los Angeles and lives on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast. Her most recent book is 'Field Notes' - a satiric miscellany published by Makaro Press (Wellington)/ Submarine Books. For more detail, see www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writer/cresswell-mary/

Mary Cresswell

---

 

Looking Forward to Afterward

Go back once more – you know that you're dying to!
It's easy to end things without even trying to

Turn down the volume, or just forget sound:
words can fail when you love who you're lying to

Such a spreadsheet of meanings for chasing intent:
spying – edifying – clarifying – nullifying, too

An unanswerable question is what you're replying to
but a virtual bollard is no good for tying to.

(It's not the wind that's the problem –
it's the trees that it's sighing through)