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CHAPTER 1
THE LOOKING GLASS
carina / the keel
Macoute slips off the wall and rests a moment on one of the leather chairs below the flag he's got swallows on the wire KERERU AEROBATICS above the cliff and his own white noise to insert between the London planes he is the tree in the view he holds up one arm against the falling sun he is the child you caught on the print the plan scribbled once on the back of an envelope TUI WINGBEAT over the house where Macoute sits thinking in a leather chair and above him a white space sand in the footbath whisky under the stars Macoute has long ears but he cannot always see where he is going and tonight will bring the Geminids overhead in a dark sky without a trace of light twenty-two steps to the door six between door and throughway nine from the bed to the back door count them and be sure use your hands and your feet Macoute down from the wall and moving silently among the sleepers in the house
horologium / the clock
raining in my heart ever since we've been apart the parabola of his hands above his open mouth and the shout of something that could be joy or another outburst of pain his legs folded the long arms reaching for visible perfection his brother contemplative a few feet away the alarm goes off at 2 a.m.
columba / the dove
when the holes in the card line up with constellations drawn by an unnamed lady starlight falls precisely on human eyes looking into Urania's mirror
feet walk over seagrass smooth to the sole a square mat that marks thresholds to be useful here you must hold the cards upside down
the lady is praised for the beauty of her designs but she remains anonymous her View of the Heavens stands on its head trembling
apus / the bird of paradise
Macoute is a gunny sack sitting out front on a plastic chair with a cup of tea the chicks are fledging he watches their unsteady flight square tails upending on the wire but safe this time did he pick up the one in the box and throw it into the air or did the ruru get there first expect MAJOR DELAY attached to the outside wall mirrored on another inside behind glass in the throughway a line of coats and jackets on their pegs Macoute puts his hands in pockets and through sleeves to feel the warmth that lingers in out of season clothing he is visible everywhere tonight settles for a single locus when morning comes and takes his smoky tea outside to watch the swallows and the islands
vela / the sails
M: How about a sail?
grus / the crane
the chain corroded and bit into her neck which became swollen and infected we removed the collar and threw it away then took her to KAMO with the windows down everyone struggling for air
a chick in the house on our return shrilled in his hand at the touch of finger to sleek head he stepped outside and threw it into the air upraised arm SCATTER OF PRINT words on the evening sky
she is ahead of us plunging into the shallows of the estuary to chase ducks and a heron that lifts off with a noise like an old book being opened she stops short ASTOUNDED by waves carrying the barking of a dog from cliffs across the river screened with trees
sculptor / the sculptor
from a plan perfectly original AROMATIC in its courting of bees sightlines and the echo from the wall of trees they face each other they turn away there is the view from here and the view from there they are not the same so you will need to keep on moving stepping in and out of frame watching for ligatures the black wall the white fireplace the raked path the perimeter walk Cassiopeia and Virgo whirling up the drive CANIS leaping for the puriri moths NOCTUA plucking them out of the air the paepae bright with OWL LIGHTS travellers returned to the house
pyxis / the mariner's compass
now we will listen to the insistent call of the kingfisher the pheasant tock-tocking in the undergrowth the morepork's hunting cry riroriro sparkling in the trees mynah dawdling on the lawn wingbeat of tui wingbeat of kereru magpie removed from the house motley ducks across the river oystercatchers keening overhead the heron's breaking spine the endless disputation of swallows a zodiac a zodiac a zodiac
circinus / the compass
Macoute and the lady follow each other around the circle I sent a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it except it's a handkerchief and the children sitting cross-legged someone must have picked it up and put it in their pocket are watching the thief
norma / the square
M: How did we know when to look?
pictor / the painter
peihana the pheasant warou the swallow rakiraki introduced ducks we are in the Primers listening for the fall of a handkerchief over chanting voices maina the mynah makipai the magpie matuku-moana the white-faced heron from this side the left arm upraised from that side the right and the words running BACKWARDS there she is a W here looking north a starry M birds in the trees bathtub on its platform above the raised beds lovers embracing among the nikau on the side of the hill olives lemons the passionfruit vine green grapes tamarillo the artist with his palette stepping out from the sycamore planes the SIGHTLINES the hoist and the fly a starry circle a portent
chamaeleon / the chameleon
lizard fingers enter the house saying you drew me out of darkness you set me against the evening sky I flutter I tremble my tail is the lost curve of the kiore moana the little horse in flight the tin fish by the window and clearest of all mirror image of my hand in silhouette dreamed out of darkness and the voices of children a long way off singing MICHAEL ROW THE BOAT ASHORE the river the estuary the mudflats lizard and seahorse you drew me out of darkness SISTER HELP TO TRIM THE SAILS
telescopium / the telescope
a notebook carried through the forest a notebook kept in a saddle bag a notebook close to a candle flame a notebook taken over the river a notebook looked at from the other side a notebook humming a notebook consulted a notebook put aside a notebook set down in a clearing a notebook taken up with praise a notebook counting in twelves constitutive of bush honey and the lunar rainbow a notebook translated a notebook compared a notebook carried to the library
caelum / the chisel
he builds a small fire and they boil the Thermette for tea while we swim in the river beside the road in the Waioeka Gorge perhaps a hundred years and still no answers he is at the edge of the river sand dipping the empty can or washing it out smiles into the barrel of the camera from behind dark glasses he is forty-one perhaps beginning to think in oils after experiments on the lid of a chocolate box he has brought us hundreds of miles looking always for the campground at the end of the road beyond Kaitaia beyond Port Jackson beyond Hicks Bay he is restless with myth and the sense of a future that will not hold him long what is the distance between us what is the distance covered shade in the heat of the day
volans / the flying fish
L: There was a game, less quarrelsome than I Spy.
antlia / the air pump
STATE OF PLAY a wreath for the ragged bees almond apple BLUE AGAVE in their fight against the Four Horsemen STARVATION COLD TOXINS PARASITES that have brought Colony Collapse Disorder to the yards and hives on a scale unprecedented in the memory of beekeepers the bees cannot recover when the Horsemen sweep through colonies weakened by multiple pathogens foragers die and the citadels are lost it is BEE APOCALYPSE Deformed Wing Virus queenlessness pounds of dead bees on the landing boards APIS MELLIFERA VS. VARROA DESTRUCTOR feral bees defenceless wiped out no more WILD HONEY HERE IN THE NATIVE BUSH rewarewa manuka kamahi tawari sweet endemic flow for birds BUT WHERE ARE THE BEES
ara / the altar
the pleasure of finding them MAJUSCULES in the flow of words / the nectar flow / the nectar flow of words each one a pollen grain SHIFTED and language looking out between BLUE BORAGE RED HONEYSUCKLE the forage the brood the cluster
WHAKAARI is an island smoking on the horizon WHAKAARI INTERNATIONAL sells manuka honey from the East Cape KUPU WHAKAARI are prophetic words spoken at Waioeka THE RIVER IS DEEP AND THE RIVER IS WIDE
corvus / the crow
OK he's an archangel summoned or sent to make a path through flames a wind angel whose sword has flown out of his upraised hand to lodge among the words that stream through his aerial geometry black on white each letter stitched at its edges each finger outlined in red eerie other on the reverse to which the needleworkers now apply mirror words how else GLOSSOLALIA in the slipstream of a renovated god STILL there is the matter of the orange wall morning sun upon it and the magpies
corona australis / the southern crown
she lifts each card from the box and holds it up to the light in that small penumbra she wears a veil of stars their magnitudes exact and covering a minute or two of her face she is Urania laying out the circle in her studio sixteen to the east sixteen to the west punching holes in the sky as she moves from card to card with compass and dividers she outlines each aperture in delicate watercolour cadmium cobalt vermilion giving them the same colours as in the night sky above bright stones for whom we make exceptions such as her anonymity her grace and her unswerving appetite for difficulty
fornax / the furnace
L: First thing their voices, irreducible.
puppis / the poop
piwakawaka clip winged insects from the air above the cat hunting with her hopeless cry on the top rail of the deck
piwakawaka stay in the house of the trees safe from the mistress of imagination and particolour dancing
piwakawaka intensify the evening over chairs of duck-egg blue close to an open door
reticulum / the net
peerless the looking glass dropped in the bush as well find it again face up to the smiling sky behind a canopy breaking open like an old book thick leaved on its way to the library as well find it beside the track or hanging in the supplejack a hundred years or more as well comb hundreds of pages for one glint of the looking glass among trees unmatched in its capacity for speech at the edge of darkness
argo / the ship
this was the day we found them three stories in the belly of a paper boat the first is a buddhist text the second introduces a gem in her own words the third is the story of a dead bird this is the order in which they were found walking east into the morning sun looking west at the sun going down a theatre of consequences the boat sails towards on a dark sea from the wings a voice like fiction squares the circle
centaurus / the centaur
a flag of light appears in the stairwell on a wall facing the west window morning sun almost at the autumn equinox has passed through the east window and through the west catching in its path the little horse rearing on the sill and throwing that shadow to the weatherboards next door the houses are so close and the image of the window sharp already a marvel of registration but it is only when we turn from this trick of the light to descend the spiral of the stair and looking up suddenly aware of luminance find the flag above our heads on the half wall the little black horse from the art shop in Lisbon who carries the weight of the hippocampus see horse the flowers in their salty pool katabatic anabatic light going everywhere coming back through the glass of the west window lighting up the dark side of the little horse taking the new silhouette and applying it faithfully articulated joints the curved neck four hooves askew on a ground of light that is the wall above our heads
indus / the indian
M: She saw your face as the words hung in the air.
tucana / the toucan
Adige. A-OK. Alleyway. All Fools' Day. All Saints' Day. All Souls' Day.
Yes, I picked them off the wall of sound.
Paraguay. Passageway. Pass away. Passion Play. Pepper spray. Petare.
One by one. Knifepoint to hinge, and twist.
Table Bay. Taboret. Tarsier. Taxiway. Tearaway. Tear away. Teleplay.
Sweet mollusc meat from the black rocks.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Vanishing Points"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Michele Leggott.
Excerpted by permission of Auckland University Press.
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