Jeremy Roberts lives in Napier, Aotearoa-New Zealand, with his wife and daughter. He MC's at Napier Live Poets, interviews poets on Radio Hawke's Bay, and is poetry editor for the VINES journal. Jeremy has recorded poems with musicians in Aotearoa, Austin, Saigon, and Jakarta. His books include Idiot Dawn (poems 1981-87), Cards on the Table (pub. 2015) and The Dark Cracks of Kemang: The Bajaj Boys In Indonesia (pub. 2022). He was awarded the Earl of Seacliff poetry prize in 2019. https://www.read-nz.org/writer/roberts-jeremy/

Jeremy Roberts

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Rumination

What are these homeless folk on the street
but little buddhas sitting
on the rubbish pile of humanity,
waiting,
with sad, oxidised faces –
the sun's arc across the sky
one more brutal stroke
of the scythe.
They know it, too.