south

The houses here are nestled into the base of the mountains, like tiny pups sleeping, curled into their mothers' soft bellies. The snow shines ultra-violet against the rose morning sky and it's easy to understand why these giants were personified by the land's tangata whenua. They are indeed alive, carrying the wisdom of an old kaumātua and the stillness of a person who speaks only when of utmost necessity.

The cold is different here - it's exhilarating, flushing your face with the crisp foreshadowing of afternoon sunshine. It's the kind of perfect air that makes you want to thrust your torso through the open window, forget your mortality and spiral around icy corners just to feel your blood accelerate in lieu of barista-made coffee.

We arrived in the dusk; Now we're leaving at dawn. Last night we turned off all the lights to let the fullmoon-lit snow flood us with its generous ambience in our tiny two by three cabin, inflated by the ski season and allowed by our desire to escape, if only for a few days.

Here, I realise the things that really matter are:
people
being
feeling
releasing.

day / eight

there's these arms
wrapped around
each others'
heads
and at times they look like lovers
but they are daughters, mothers

the arms - three - cut,
choke, slice
they form diamonds over purple eyes

wailing, shrieking, leaking salt
(both in and out the designated space)
index and pinky
strike, point; blank; fight
and all we've seen within our seven sights
manifests,

these women know
the All that all women know
and with the fleshy parts of them allowed to speak
they are
Speaking -
fleshing words out of stacked fists
as their brothers do
scratching sentences from throats
carving mouthfuls out of teeth

for centuries we've been taught
to be seen and not heard
so we will be seen.
and we will not be unseen.

whito

we were in that other plane
as we approached that cave
end of the beach, the
darkness shook us --

I was the first to say it
because I was
unravelling
but you concurred immediately
there's something there
we knew it:
the land was holding.

so we turned swiftly in our sluggish bodes
"sorry," I said aloud
because it was necessary
for it to know
we knew our error.

I wove the reo into my speech,
talking of "tapu"
so it would know
I was friend,
so it would forgive
me, us

I'm trying

-- back to our designated place
where we exchanged money
to sleep by the pou
I wrapped my blanket tighter around me
in lieu of a coat
in lieu of cup of tea
the thing we want
the most
right now

cold enough to know we're here
high enough to know the difference
centred enough to know the thing
and white enough not to see it