Wahine

by FargoFansydney, New South Wales, Australia

Feb 2022 220 Views 0 comments

The Wahine

Have I ever written of that terrible night?
From my Cambridge Terrace riverside house
Mid autumn 1968
the eerie howl of the wind
and the weird charcoal afternoon sky
looming glooming twixt those European trees
through whose leaves I scuffed every Autumn.
I stood watching trees heaving boughs creaking
some 300 km from the wallowing ship
where 51 died one stormy night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Posted: Feb 2022

About this poem:

Memories of the Wahine disaster. I had taken computers on the Wahine up to Wellington but a month before, and the Inangahua earthquake struck but six weeks later.