trout

Getting There

A penfriend living overseas wrote
me a letter telling me a bit about life there

how he too was a library assistant once
and that Mao Zedong was too. The City Librarian

told me that Philip Larkin was a librarian
and that I should think about getting

a library qualification. Work it out. I'm trying
to get my degree. Just nine papers after this year.

Witi Ihimaera wrote a short story about a young Maori
who took so many many years to get a degree

but in the end he got it and his whole whanau
were there to support him at graduation.

I've already planned mine. We'll take a photo
at the floral clock together, and smile a lot.