NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

THE PICNIC. Breathless, we lay upon the burning saw], Our faces on our arms, ami overhead, A seagull hovered, coasted, downward sped, Then glided slowly to the shimmering land; And somewhere, in the town, a half-heard band Played unfamiliar tunes, and blossoms red Fell round about us as if Summer bled. And waved farewell with blossom-stained hand . . . And now again upon the sand we lie, But something mars the beauty of the day; The band still plays, the yachts go heeling by, The sun is just as bright, the flowers as guyBut half-sunk in the sand, with dead, fixed eye, The seagull lies, shot in some wanton play. —CHRISTINE COMBEIt, Auckland.