A poem to pass the time...

Tane Mahuta*

The Maoris told us you
lifted our parents apart,
an eternal divorce
for our own good,
so we might bloom
in their shadows.

By this act,
we’ve learned to separate,
to walk away,
and somewhere
between their color
and heat,
we move

across our mother
and under the blue
back of our father,
unable to recognize
their faces.


Within the Waipoua Forest,
you’ve dressed in age
and kept your limbs
pressed into the belly of our father,
pleading for us,
while we believe
we are the source of light.



* the son of Mother Earth and Father Sky in Maori legend. It is also the name of an ancient Kauri tree in New Zealand, between 1250 and 2500 years old.