Hinetitama’s Unbroken Song
Hinetītama’s Unbroken Song
She Rises,
When darkness
descends
each night
upon the people.
Unflinching,
dependable.
Bearing the first flame,
That is,
Hinetītama.
Fraying fingers of hope.
Sweeping the cobwebs of malignancy
from the dreamscape. Placing honey dew
into the hallowed, yearning
heart of humanity.
When the dark night overthrew Meretai,
They sent her, toward
Hine-nui-te-Pō too.
She coughed and spluttered.
Her shame.
Her rage.
Her coiled memories of tired grandmothers.
Blood dripped, from her tender throat
wrenching, a story
wrangled in the womb.
That’s when the tupuna engulfed her.
Upon her final breath,
Reversing her file,
tattooing her feet.
Before she fell deeply asleep,
they fetched her original flame.
Three days and three nights lapsed.
Like the moon from Whiro,
she grew and woke.
A single shard
of crisp,
morning
light.
She Rose.
From the cavern
they murmured,
“E Hine, walk”
“walk on, E Hine….
Don’t look for us and
don’t look back”
She walked.
Humming,
Hinetītama’s
unbroken song
Turning the sun
upon its radiant axis.
