Retreat

On a day

under milk

/            there is a silent wave

              above us

                                                             /

The clouds disagree with the season

Our thoughts spent delaying the inevitable

I have been so far past the fence line

I have lost my way back to the front porch

The pianist cracks his fingers

(a flash of hail on a tin roof)

speeds through the week as an octave

but can never sustain the centre of things

If this was the world

before maps

/            before the lines we drew

              found their way back to themselves

                                                             /

I’d sing the songs that summon ghosts and

they would tell me where to rest my head

Chris Tse

Chris Tse is a Wellington writer, actor, and musician. He studied film and English literature at Victoria University, where he also completed an MA in creative writing. His first full-length poetry collection, How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, was published by AUP this September.