January 2011
After the Earthquake, Before the Earthquake
On the 4th September 2010, Christchurch was hit by 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Since that day there have been over 7,000 aftershocks, 3news in New Zealand reported in January that the aftershocks were causing a spike in recovering alcoholics suffering a relapse with numbers increasing tenfold. Early one morning I walked down Manchester st and turned off onto Tuam Street as I was coming to Barbadoes St on the left hand side was a car park. Part of the area seemed designated to bricks from condemned buildings as the trucks lined up ready to dump more on an already mounting pile. As I approached a man in a suit walked gingerly towards a hole in the fence placing an empty bottle of vodka into an overflowing box of empty bottles. I wondered how long he had been doing this, was it a monthly routine, a weekly routine, perhaps a daily routine? It seemed to be his statement on life in Christchurch after the quake, all before the the working day had begun. I was there just a few weeks before Christchurch suffered the fatal 6.3 magnitude earthquake on the 22nd February where 181 people died.
September 2007
Little Did She Know
What lurks ahead? What is there in the night? The cold wind blows, whistles names through the air. What is ahead in the darkness, the dark places within. I see myself, reflected, looking back, looking for answers within the night sky. What lurks ahead, well little did she know.
