Back to Issue Thirty-One

Document

BY CHLOE HONUM

Large rat in the courtyard of the Auckland Art Gallery,

in daylight, what are you after? People walking by

have varying reactions to you. Some make faces of dislike.

One boy smiles and pauses awhile to watch you.

Others look at you and away with no change

in expression. You scurry alongside your reflection

in a wall of glass, stopping and starting unnervingly,

then turn and hop easily up the stairs.

Your eyes are gentle, even hopeful, in their way.

Yet you make me shiver. When you hold still, your tail

lies flat behind you, a dark line on the smooth concrete.

Like a place to sign at the end of an old, unreadable year.