Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Auckland
(after William Blake)

by Rachel J. Fenton

I drive wrong way on one-way streets
along the harbour front and docks
and note the locals in bare feet
and tourists in white sports socks.

On every corner buskers sing
while people wait at traffic lights
and hear the crossing buzzer ring
but do not know their human rights.

Free of children, free of prams,
not for infants or the old
and the stores do not have ramps:
cripples left out in the cold

though one in seven claims to have
some form of disability.
Auckland's pride rests on the grave
of pioneer not charity.

3 comments:

  1. William Blake would approve, as I do.

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  2. So you are allowed to rhyme! I thought publishers were only looking for free poetry.
    I do like your poem Rae, but then I do love the simplicity of William Blake. I'll read more of your writing now I know where to look.

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