One of the poems in this anthology was 'Watermelon and Coffee'.
This poem is reproduced below.

Watermelon and Coffee

My life has become watermelon and coffee

As I sit in my chair, in a house on a hillside,
Watching the sun set
And evening dusk darkens the Tamaki Strait
The outlines of Waiheke fade into darkness

I think of her -
Memories treasured and painful

The smell of her skin
Dark hair, spilled on the pillow like tresses of seaweed
Her nose - like a button!
The laughing day we bought unripe watermelons from a market, by mistake
Walking arm in arm in Dingle Dell
Sweet memories of better times, now forever lost

I remember quarrelling over the cost of masks
And over money
And over her gambling debts
And her theft of truth, from the nice people at immigration
And how she taught me:
"Woa tse gurr da chu tan tzt"
I am drinking from a large bowl of vinegar
A statement of jealousy
More true for her, than for me

Days walking in the park, watching the ducks
Or feeding the swans
Or the mooncake she gave me

And the day she flew to Christchurch
For an argument with another man
The way she tried to poison me with her cooking
And the fear of teaching her to drive
Usually on the wrong side of the road
Occasionally on the footpath
The way she never came to our poetry readings

And now the light has gone out of the sky
And the stars are visible
Saturn and a full moon in Taurus
Written in light in the sky, for all to see,
Your infidelity

My life has become watermelon and coffee
Part sweet,
And part bitter.

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Page last modified on 16 January 2006