mother

Having waded herself through the rivers of time, casting out her second self to faith and remembering the un-lived sights of primordial Aotearoa, she -- sat previously only in bath waters and storm clouds -- finds herself beloved again to the ocean. Swimming with her past strung around her neck, but afloat... Here she carries from her legs back four from two, and takes a stranger's most sincere blessings toward the Pacific. Back to a birth that precedes this current one, gifted from eldest birthing and on towards some newer place: though lower lying than this land, a mountain still. And climbs she with strength -- those two sturdy legs -- to the top.