August 14th, 2018

Thick clumsy fingers
pinching corners of folds of leaf
that tantalisingly caress Papatuanuku.
She sighs and exhales the pungent odours of decay
and re-birth between her loins of ferns and mosses that glisten.
Robin dutifully reside on the bush floor foraging amongst Papa’s hairs
for insects and mosquitos that dance tantalisingly amongst the speckled light
cast from above the mountain peaks.
Rushing waters, seething cascades between her fissures
and slits of rock that have been cast strung abandoned
towards chuckling eddies skipping freely amongst boulders
cast by tectonic upheaval.
Huge leaves that open like massive plates of green towards the peaks
that pierce the sky like sharks teeth thrusting and tearing.
Ranginui shifts his snowy blanket of weft and weave
like strands of muka
to twirl amongst the sharpened teeth
as if a union could ever exist amongst the rock and shale.
Tawhirimatea reveals his presence as he turns and twists,
whistling briefly amongst the cavernous folds of Papa,
who shivers with cold,
while he gently caresses parts and leaves the rest of her alone.
​