Manawatu Gothic
-You look at the sky, its changed. Again. It never stays the same.
-Its raining again. It’s always raining. It never stops raining.
-The sun is wise. It hides away. We never see the sun. Very rarely. The clouds hide it.
-The wind blows. No one says anything. We should be grateful its not like Wellington. They must have done something wrong.
-No one stops in the Gorge. No one talks about why.
-The spirits haunt the river. No one goes out too deep. They don’t come back if they do.
-You hear a story about the Gorge. About a man who chased his lover through the land. They say his tears form the river. They say he is still there.
-You forget it the next day. When you ask about it, they don’t look you in the eye. They pretend the story doesn’t exist.
-They tell you about Bojingles. They laugh and say its a story. They don’t say anything about the sinkhole. Or the green light in the farmlands. They don’t admit its true.
-You forget again. They won’t tell you again.
-There are places you are told not to go. They joke. They don’t say why. No one ever says why.
-They call it Friendly Fielding. You go back in time. No one says anything. They never do.
-No one walks through the Esplanade in Palmerston North at night. They lock the gates to keep them in. They pray to the river spirits that they keep them in. You don’t know who, or what, they are trying to keep in.
-No one says anything. The spirits tell them not to. They haven’t talked to you. You hope they never do.
