Mother Maunga and other poems
Image Credit: Alexander Te Pohe
Mother
our heartbeats were one and the same
i breathed you breathed
i inhaled you exhaled
I was the human born of your earth, you were my maunga, my whaea, my whenua
All I remember is being surrounded by trees, feeling loved and warmth underneath your shade
Mother maunga I was taken from you at a young age
I did not cry or shed tears,
I did not know what it was like not being surrounded by my ancestor’s love
Mother maunga I came back to visit you again, I had changed
my heartbeat to a different rhythm
my mind was filled with images of one long hill, not your wide, circular arms, or your over-bearing stance
Mother maunga I understand now
Image Credit: Rosie Moana Pickett
Big
big
tumbles around in my head on an empty stomach
big
hips too wide to fit down corridors
limbs too long to fit
big
gets thrown at me by angry eyes
bodies too tired to care
bodies too tired to see me
big
i hate that word
i hate how it makes me feel
as if being tall is a curse that can be cured by insults
my version of me morphs so frequently
at home I’m a cheeky playful girl
out there I’m a barcode
a pre-ordained visual reminder of a shape that people dislike
i won’t let that word define me anymore
big can be beautiful too
be elegant
be kind
be smart
be funny
awkward
weird
big can be whatever I choose to be
Image Credit: Pablo Heimlatz
Grandma’s Dolphin
A single window is left ajar in a small, tiny house.
The moon’s light quietly creeps, tip-toes into the house through the open window.
The light finds the stone floor and its trappings of cold, damp, misty air.
The light sweeps over, under, and around wooden furniture of chairs, of tables, and cupboards.
The light extends onto a single benchtop. It stops. It is glistening, gleaming, dancing off an ornamental, ceramic dolphin.
The dolphin cannot move, cannot dance. The dolphin whispers to the light to laugh and shares its stories, stories of mischief, adventures, and troublemaking.
Do you remember when your grandma got saved by dolphins? She went out too far, nearly drowned, but a dolphin turned up and swam your grandma to shore.
I remember, mum.
