ANGELA ANDREWS
The Wedding Present
He watches us
unwrap the hours
spent in his shed,
seated on wheelchair vinyl,
slowed
by a lack of air.
*
The mornings began cold,
his fingers stiff
beyond the contraction
of age. He held
a fishtail chisel
in one hand, a mallet
in the other, his grasp
steadily loosened
by the rhythm
of metal and wood.
Oxygen streamed
through a clear tube
she uncoiled along carpet,
down steps, over grass,
into his vaselined nostrils.
She served him coffee
next to the turps, lunch
amongst shavings of wood.
They talked sometimes.
She took a photo
so we’d know.
*
There is a grey hush.
I can feel his grip,
the faltering burst of the tools.
And if I listen beyond the
tock, tock, tock
of an inching chisel,
I can hear the hum
of a box
extracting air.
Angela Andrews has recently published her first book of poetry, Echolocation (Victoria University Press, 2007). She spends most of her time raising her two young sons, and has previously worked as a doctor. Her work also appears in Best New Zealand Poems 2005.
Andrews comments: ‘ “The Wedding Present” is about my grandfather. In the months leading up to my wedding he was very ill, and required continuous oxygen. It was during this time that he made a replica of a Maori carving he’d done in the eighties, when I was around four years old. The carving had hung in my grandparents’ lounge for as long as I could remember – this big kauri creature with paua shell eyes and fish scales – I was overawed by it as a child. My husband Nick is Maori, and had also admired it, and I think that must have been part of the reason my grandfather was driven to undertake such a big project, despite his physical state. We found out about all of this just before the wedding, when he presented us with the finished piece. He died two months later.’
Links
Victoria University Press author page
Lumiere Reader: A Chat with Angela Andrews
Best New Zealand Poems 2005