Newspaper boy in courtenay place

I was walking down Courtney Place 1983.
Part of me was a child on the coast.
The other part worked selling newspapers in Wellington.
Everyone was talking about David Bowie visiting.
The majestic Michael Fowler center was being finished.

Cranes were working and it looked like something would actually grow.
Uneven steps and crowding hills awkward buildings align.
Mirrors everywhere so New Zealanders could look at themselves.
But who were they anyway, lost Colonists and Maori at the foot of the world.
Some vestige of imperial greatness the got smoothed out by salt water?

It grew slowly and collapsed a few times.
In march of 83 the Royals came to visit. Bringing their children.
With space and privacy to bask in the sun on their picnics.
Muldoon was fighting to get the reigns inside the beehive.
Things were on the whole unstable, but appeared stable.