trout

Boxing Day

Grandad stays at home this morning on the hill --
his gout's playing up something chronic.

I take him up his feed and a can of Lion Red.
He says he'll have the can, and gives his kai

to Uncle Tangi. Slightly later we take the pickup
full of kids to Paihia. There's kayaks,

sea-tricycles, and Kelly Tarlton's shipwreck museum.
I play Uncle Ed's new space invaders game for a while,

then cross the bridge to Waitangi on my own.
I get right to the porch of the Treaty House,

but then I'm turned away by a guide who says it will
cost me five dollars to stay on the Treaty Grounds.

Don't you know I'm tangata whenua, I think,
but I'm too stuffed to protest and leave. Later that night

we have a karaoke and I play Trivial Pursuit with some
cuzzies. I sang New York, New York and Mack the Knife.