bad weather

- courtesy NASA

this is a new piece, why I've published it on the front page, resting, it has its permanent home as part of the series called Political Works

I hear you are having bad weather
while here it is cold but settled
and Nameed tells me it is not unseasonal
he tells me also he has a good
manager unreasonal
this is my neologism
for places reason can go but it is
not allowed
Nameed is Pakistani
in Saudi Arabia
Every day he is outside at six am
he has reason to know how cold a day it is
he compares it with Pakistan
I am from New Zealand
we are both in a hotel room
and he is making the bed
I know there is a region of the moon
called the Sea of Tranquility

New Zealand is as far away
in my imagination
as Saudi Arabia had been
and before September last year it
was the last place I'd have dreamt of
to come Sajib is here today
making my bed a cyclone hit
the North Island yesterday
shit flowed into Wellington harbour it
filled the harbour the Beehive
doesn't really look like a beehive
but like a toilet vent of the sort
you see capping the pipe to stop rats
from entering
the sewerage system where
they find fat and other tasty
morsels to eat
the two Jans used to take me
to the debating chamber at
Parliament House to
put me to sleep. A
real boys' club in those days.
Fart jokes and newspapers. I have seen
the latest AI images released
as part of the election
campaign Mare Cognitum
Serenitatis Mare Tranquillitatis
Lacus Doloris Sinus Honoris Sinus
Amoris on the moon I hear
the Atlas Network are
way up inside promoting the agendas
of 1984

I hear you are having bad weather
forever that knowledge is hard to bear
but will you be meeting friends
in Bahrain Jalal drove us
around sometimes in a taxi
a van with a tan roof sometimes an
ordinary car to avoid the airport
tarifs What do you do, Jalal, I
asked him, when you're not
doing this? I meet with friends
talk play cards drink tea black
tea not like Turkish straight
no sugar yes no sugar we make a big
pot always a big pot of tea
The moon announcing the beginning of
Ramadan the crescent moon is expected
but has not been sighted I love
Ramadan the houses in my village
all open their doors everyone
goes from house to house
it is my favourite time Jalal said
but my house sometimes is locked
because I have friends to go to
too

the worst scene everybody says this
the most frightening in 1984 is
when they put the rat cage on John
Hurt's head and it has nowhere
to go because the cage made of wire
in the film has the shape of a
funnel which widens to fit his face
where leather straps hold it
the rat of course wants to
escape it runs around inside
until discovering the funnel it
thinks the man is a means of
escape with his soft skin it runs
at his face which is a camera
by now I imagine his teeth did he
fight? like the man's who
attacked Wayne in Myer's Park or
dissociate? and live with the
shame of what happened like
everyone does

not long to go
he might have said to himself
not long

when I think about the Roman
Empire I think about John Hurt as
Caligula and

Messalina the queues of men all
like Epstein

...

(17 February 2026, Riyadh)