GEOFF COCHRANE
The Lich-Gate
My life was mine as coins are brown and few,
As the weak and enchanted fail to thrive,
And the undertaker's fattened roses blew.
My housemates were junkies and transvestites;
Sweet Cilla could flash a daunting tool;
My life was mine as coins are brown and few.
The oblong clock had stopped at 3:15
(Whether a.m. or p.m., there was no knowing),
But the undertaker's fattened roses blew.
In his own diurnal dark, some Druid prayed for me
(This was the dim sense I had of it):
My life was mine as coins are brown and few.
There on the corner, funeral home and clock.
Beyond, the city's arsenals, coffers.
And the undertaker's fattened roses blew.
So, as Neil Young sang his hurricane of need
In the lit and brittle shop replete,
My life was mine as coins are brown and few
And the undertaker's fattened roses blew.
Geoff Cochrane lives in Wellington. In 2009, he was the recipient of the Janet Frame Award for Poetry. His most recent collection is The Worm in the Tequila (Victoria University Press, 2010).
Cochrane comments: ‘A very good commentary on “The Lich-Gate” is provided by the poems immediately preceding it in The Worm in the Tequila: “Three Songs” and “The Rooming-House”. Similar grist is milled by “Ages and Ages” and a number of other pieces in the same volume.’
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