Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 7. April 23 1968
Cavatina
Cavatina
Spirogyra green and brown
waving in the swirling depths
blue-green water from the womb
the deepest trench yet
timing your plunge . . .
Cavilling virgins
wielding instructions before
my narrow mind:
I do not understand the law
and have arranged my private
auto-da-fé
Glass-eyed submariners
bleeding sockets I saw:
You called to me my friends?
and plucked me out of the air
into your close world
dragging me down so deep
I couldn't look up and
See the inflated pod-bladders
of the sky slowly rotating
around the scar-tissue of
my ruptured retina
There is a pearl inside my skull
which is of a careful culture
and too valuable to split . . .
Perhaps when my lungs burst
I will float to the surface
and be a buoy for
The wreck of my life. If you see
this carcass leave it floating,
my virgin mourners. Do not raise
up this defenceless shell:
simply screw a brass plate to the skull.
Rhys. G. Pasley