1. Poème noir (Doris's petticoat ; Blue ; Uncanny valley ; Double indemnity ; Dark days at the Oxygen Cafe ; Mistakes ; FIN) -- 2. National Sandfly Day (Laika ; The Owl Man ; The tiles ; Questions with which to interrogate a witch ; Kalamazoo ; National Sandfly Day ; The flying saucer is a breast ; Da do ron ron ; Turbo prop job ; At the hermitage ; James Dean) -- 3. Topiary at the camp (Nursery story ; Topiary at the camp ; The Amnesia Aquarium ; The big bride ; By the château ; Old crimes ; Rheum ; Naming bread after your mother) -- 4. What do you call your male parent? (Solstice ; Test flight ; Castaway ; Crossing the bar ; Breath ; Yew tree ; What do you call your male parent? ; By the Arnold) -- 5. The White Sea Speed trap (On the hill ; Omphalomancy ; Hic Sunt Dracones ; Time's fool ; The Maya calendar ; Piña para la niña / mora para la señora ; Osculation ; Poem / Epithalamium ; To replicate the last call of the huia ; Town birds of New Zealand ; Trireme ; The White Sea ; The death of Seneca).
Summary:
"James Norcliffe is one of New Zealand's most widely published and anthologised poets. In Dark Days at the Oxygen Café, he looks over the shoulders of many characters and creatures, both real and imagined, and takes us deep into uncanny valleys. Poems about Seneca and James Dean sit alongside poems about a Turkmen dictator and an owl man. We share in a portentous UFO sighting, a small celebration for Laika the space dog, and Peter the Great being offered an Air New Zealand lolly. These scenes from myth, history, pop culture and personal experience make for a wryly funny, deeply felt collection that contemplates the quirks of shared and personal histories"--Publisher information.
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