The Jap sniper’s rifle
with shoulder against the post
had the kick of a tethered heifer
We found the ammo under the bed
hidden by your father
a war souvenir they say
When farmers became soldiers
and marched to lands beyond
the red of the dominions
The Taranaki mud
giving way to tropical sludge
or desert sands
They say the bullet travelled some five miles
in a descending line
from the boxthorn hedge in which we had tunneled
cocooned from the world
in our thorny stockade
we waited for re-percussions
Roger Smith November 2010
