Hinemoana Baker

1968 / Christchurch

the fossils

I feel
said the woman on the bus
like I've swallowed a branch.
Is this a new flu?
The bus-driver said
I feel like
I've swallowed a hurry.
Well I
said the depot manager
I feel like I've swallowed
a large white brick state house.
The brick isn't real
it's a kind of cladding.
At one corner
a nest of spiders is building.
We the shareholders
said the shareholders
feel like we've swallowed a bus - no
several buses, trolley buses
or trams which depend on electricity
for their volition and wave sparking
antennae up at the thick wires
which criss-cross our city
making every suburb
and hotspot accessible
without resort
to the motorcar and its
archaic fossil-fuel-burning
technologies.
We are a branch
say the fossils
of your family.
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