Symonds St Cemetery

Tread lightly on this bed
Of thick oak leaves
Lest you disturb the dead

City sounds all around
Busses and motorway

Dewdrops under the bare-branched trees
And hopping thrush

Spare a thought for
Violet McLeod
Her broken memory
Bulldozed aside

The fallen urn
And shattered marble
Auckland’s shame

The history
The heartbreak
Of lost children’s graves
Under mossy dark earth