by Rodney Williams

1.

I turn to glimpse through glass one passing stream
as a tram lurches around the bend across this bridge
down at the bottom of High Street
from Northcote heading south –
if barely seeing the Merri Creek sparkle in sunlight
I’m still at home here whilst elsewhere for decades

2.

awake again in a convertible sleeping car
on the Southwest Chief out of Chicago
at a halt here in Fort Madison
this no-glamour stop in Iowa, bound for LA
I turn to glimpse through glass one passing stream –
beside these train tracks glinting the Mississippi

3.

from an air-conditioned tourist coach
I turn to glimpse through glass one passing stream
the Katherine up in the Territory
bound for a cruise along its Nitmiluk Gorge
with deep waters soon to reflect sandstone bluffs
if ochre-red at sunrise later golden as rock art

4.

behind the port-side wing in a passenger jet
above the west coast of southern Aotearoa
with greywacke alps under snow
I turn to glimpse through glass one passing stream
named for a governor of war the Grey River
staining the Tasman with sediment off Greymouth

5.

hearing news yet again of flesh stripped from bone
in a flash by piranha incisors in frenzy
I turn to glimpse through glass one passing stream
where a scarlet macaw
wings in overhead through rainforest diminishing
this Amazon travelogue a repeat on free-to-air TV