Picnic at Lady’s Bay, Kawau Island
Marjory Woodfield, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand
(after the painting, ‘Allegorical Triumph of Sir George’ by Hamish Foote, 2001)
He drives a zebra-drawn carriage. Says picnic
is an ugly word, like snipsnap or chitchat.
She cuts a fashionable silhouette. Along the path
to Lady’s Bay, lily of the valley grows wild by her feet.
He has planted Chilean Wine Palms
beside Mansion House. Peacocks preen.
She spreads a white tablecloth. There are wax-eyes in the pōhutukawa.
He remembers spiders in the berries and cream.
Sand in the pâté.
Gannets dip and dive. She watches her daughter build a castle on the sand, carry water to the moat. She lights six candles on a cake, sings happy birthday dear Charlotte.
Marjory Woodfield has written for The BBC and stuff.co.nz, and her work has appeared in literary magazines (Orbis, The Lake, Flash Frontier…) and Best Small Fictions. She won the New Zealand 2018 Robert Burns Poetry Competition, and has placed in Hippocrates, Yeovil, Ver and John McGivering writing competitions.
2nd place winner, Micro Madness 2022
More here