All us oldies want is the occasional melody from the past
New Cromwell has consumed Old Cromwell
made it subterranean a rat-infested midden layer
torn up weatherboards crushed quartz tī kōuka trail
underwater souvenirs
Cromwell doesn’t know its own shape
no longer greeting chafer beetles at sunset
a survey maps donegal wicklow monaghan
onto sand
nothing is related to anything else
talk-backers sketch a claim for the before times
when there were no developments
no cyclists only fruit trees
fresh electricorp cul-de-sacs tarsealed
all the moa were dead
footprints frozen in stone notes on a stream-bed
Notes:
The title ‘All us oldies want is a melody from the past’ is taken from listener feedback sent into the Kim Hill Saturday Morning show on RNZ on 29/1/22. The te reo Māori name for Cromwell is Tīrau, which speaks to the tī kōuka that were planted as route-markers, and a food source, for those travelling inland from coastal settlements. The Cromwell Chafer Beetle is only found near Cromwell, and is one of the few invertebrates protected by the Wildlife Act 1953. In 2019 fossils of moa footprints were found in a stream at Kyeburn.