61 | Wordsworth

Readers were invited to submit a brief poem including this line from A Duck’s Tune by LeAnne Howe: So I moved to this place where …

Jess Miller of Northland writes: So I moved to this place where they’re lawless and wild/You may find yourself mugged by a knife-wielding child./Beware thugs on mopeds who don’t fear the cops/But apart from those gripes I think London is tops.

Chris Greenwood, Motueka: Stressed out, they said. So I moved to this place/ where the tide slaps the shore and the rats never race./ Then, discovered! A mob of developers came/to organise, cultivate, order and tame./It’s all getting just a bit too much to bear/So, I’m moving to this place where …

John Mills, Gebbies Valley: I grew up learning etiquette,/Despite it’s seeming rather wet./So I moved to this place where/ No one really seems to care.

Jo Bowler, Auckland: The call of the country was loud in my ears/Goodbye to the city where I’d lived for years/Fuel taxes and rates hikes were draining my blood/ So I moved to this place where I wallow in mud!

Melissa Lord, Wellington: So I moved to this place where the prices are low/And the nights are lit up by a beautiful glow/It’s silent and tranquil, the traffic’s no factor/But I give a wide berth to that melted reactor.

But Auckland’s Rex McGregor takes the prize: I lived in the old USA./But the Land of the Free lost its way./So I moved to this place/Where I don’t have to face/ What the President’s tweeted today.

For the next contest, send us your idea for a spectacular new boondoggle (here meaning a project that’s wasteful of government funds). You may submit in prose or brief poetry. Entries, for the prize below, close at noon on Thursday, October 4.