I leave the UK

to emigrate to New Zealand

with a small day pack

half-full

it contains

22 objects

5 balls

3 clubs

(I learnt to juggle just before

     we left

and had time to visit

     Oddballs in London)

2 books: a Good News Bible

(which I kept for another twenty years

then dropped into the Waihi recycling bin)

a notebook housing

13 of my poems

culled from 700

(which I burnt in the garden) –

one of the poems is sort of okay

has a nice Dylan Thomas-ish

     line,

“to where the sea and swarm of bluebells

chases the night-dark woods”

the rest can be forgiven –

a spare shirt

underwear . . .

the only object I still own

     is that notebook

(I’ve changed juggling props)

I don’t miss anything