At the End
I arrived at the end with my best friend
he who was steady and true
when he asked me what he could do
push me over the edge I said
and he pushed me deep into the blue.
A Perfect Place
In a hut in a field by a forest near a mountain on an island in the ocean, here
I am at peace.
The Pessimist
I’ve been wrong my whole life long
in the wrong place, at the wrong time
with the wrong people – could be a sign?
In the end it may be I was right all along
except by then – wouldn’t you know –
I’ll be long gone.
Plea to One’s Executioner
Please give me a moment to relax before you place the blade of your axe
at the back of my head, thus rendering me dead. Allow me to take a bow
for a life lived well in the here and now. When I’m ready, when I’m done
then you may proceed with your kinky kind of fun.
Sunset
When Jack and I sat by the sea side by side, he said the sea’s in me
and I agreed, then said the sea is me and then we agreed that the sea
the sun, in fact we were one; and then the sun set.
Though writing poetry and vispo since the mid-1970s, Michael Gould only entered the literary arena since retiring from the workforce. He was awarded a mentorship in 2021 by the New Zealand Society of Authors with poet laureate David Eggleton. His work has appeared in publications both academic and popular in Aotearoa, Australia and England. He is the author of Surrealism and the Cinema: Open-eyed Screening (1976). He lives in Wellington.