Piwakawaka

What better name for a bird laughing
at a man entering a woman then one
flew through my window and I
said no out of chill respect for omen
Because Hine-nui-te-po has first
bounce of echo in my house
and she's coming over for a cup of tea,
tuis on the good china and huia feathers
icing her hair. The table alive with birds
and the hoard of our beloved's leap off the cape
how well she lives with the dead inside her
in the tangi's halo of rain and te po below
and the bright one's fluttered augur
in the language of fans.

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(c) Talia Marshall. All rights reserved.

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