el toro*
the el toro
coffee lounge
run by a bull
of a man behind
the counter
never occurred
to me even once
how right the
name a poster
of a bull-fight
inside the heavy
door meat pies
and chowmein
a bull
of a man who
talked and laughed
with an impatient
nod of the head
a son of migrants
brought up tough
in the canterbury cold
first of his people’s
kids to pull on a
first-fifteen* jersey
went back to
the old country
for a village bride
ran that business
till age ran up
the debts on his
body, packed it
in & just put out
to pasture was
felled by sickness
i visited once
that land he never
made it back to
again burnt incense
at a bustling shrine
in a fall of sunlight
in his honour
the painted wood
shouldering sweeps
of gable
those people of
his
blood
slipping off shoes
on the granite step
to kneel were
his honour.
10 – 12 feburary, 2014
panmure
*spanish for ‘the bull’
*top school or local area rugby team