How could I not have seen you
in the sea of a thousand faces?
Why did you not reach out to me
from the throng of swaying bodies?
Weeks the Rangitoto ploughed the ocean,
Southampton to the Antipodes
and our eyes never met.
I watched Wellington draw near
while with shaded eyes you viewed the dock.
Faces swam before me,
semaphore hands spelt welcome
but not for me, lone traveller.
Smiles lit the quayside,
shouts assaulted ears.
No-one called out to you.
Orderly fashion, the stampede began –
new land, new life.
Hands brushed, eyes locked, we smiled together.
New love.
©Chris Nedahl 2012
Almonds and Olives 