Man Drowned

For Mmy brother, Barry, who drowned in Lake Taupo, December 22nd, 1972.

The lake made no house for him,

no residence that he might stay.

Breaking its hold, they

shattered such flimsy pinions

-- released and brought him home --

for a night defiant,

barricaded from belief

this sitting-room family of eyes

(hard as chairs, blind as wives)

was his company.

Small band of tense disciples,

brother, mother, sister

contrived, in that room, a house,

a tomb so tenacious,

if his chest rose and fell

like a whisper, each wall

might crack to the floor.