MICHAEL STEVEN

Plankton

The last time I ever saw my father happy
he was on the deck smoking a cigarette,
watching the mouths of snapper

stipple the bay’s steel blue surface
to feed on clouds of invisible plankton.
The seabirds would soon work in circles

making shadows over the water,
squawking and diving at the snapper.
My father’s face turned to disappointment,

his reverie broken by their racket.
He grew tired of his life and moved away.
The house is owned by someone else.

I would cross the years of silence to tell him
that moment right before the seabirds
turned up was poetry, and it was enough.

A photo of poet Michael Steven close up on his face

Michael Steven is a writer from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is the author of several chapbooks and the collections Walking to Jutland Street (Otago University Press, 2018), The Lifers (OUP, 2020), and Night School (OUP, 2022). His honours include the 2018 Creative New Zealand Todd New Writers Bursary and the 2021 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award.

Steven comments: 'I was a kid who talked too much. One of my father's harder lessons was teaching me to keep my mouth shut, my eyes and ears open. Unwittingly he was teaching me the observational skills I would later use to become a poet. "Plankton" is one of many poems I have written in an attempt to give thanks for such a gift.'

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