Coverage by Tim Jones

He went south with the housing market
to a cottage facing the sea,


spent his last pay cheque
on Swannis and draught excluders.


Coverage was minimal.
He called his children


from the top of a nearby hill,
struggling through gorse, matagouri —


the visible teeth of the wind.
He got through at last


and begged until she put them on.
Given the chance, the kids talked


and talked: sports, school, when
they could fly down to see him.


That depends, he said, and then
they were breaking up —


fugitive crackles, then silence
under a polar sky.


Coverage was first published in North & South (May 2007) and is included in Swings and Roundabouts: Poems on Parenthood (Random House, 2008), edited by Emma Neale.


Tim Jones is a poet and author of both literary fiction and science fiction. He lives in Wellington, New Zealand. His fiction and poetry has been published in New Zealand, the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Vietnam.


His most recent books are short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008), which was long-listed for the 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, poetry collection All Blacks' Kitchen Gardens (HeadworX, 2007), and poetry anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (Interactive Press, 2009), which he co-edited with Mark  Pirie. The latest news about Tim and his writing is on his blog at http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com


Tim's Notes on Coverage
This poem went through a couple of versions before the published version you see here. It started from the pun about the housing market going south, which led me to the idea of someone moving south to where houses are cheaper - if I was thinking of anywhere in particular, it was Fortrose, east of Invercargill on the Southland coast, which used to be a thriving little fishing settlement when I was a boy but appeared to be largely abandoned the last time I was in the area.


I felt that the protagonist hadn't made this move by choice - perhaps his relationship had broken up and he had lost, or given up, his job? I pictured him trying, and trying, to get through.


Coverage is reproduced on Tuesday Poem with permission from the author.

Harvey Molloy is this week's editor of the Tuesday Poem. His first book of poems, Moonshot, was published by Steele Roberts in 2008. He has also published non-fiction work on Asperger Syndrome, and is the co-author, with Latika Vasil, of the book Asperger Syndrome, Adolescence, and Identity: Looking Beyond the Label.