– 65 –

Love Poem for
the Tauherenikau River

I don't know where you start
or even end
I have only been to your middle.
It is always me and one other.
Along your banks we eat kawakawa berries
mouthfuls of grit and pepper.
We slide naked into the same sunfilled hole
our splashes blur the clearness of your water.
We move stones and you move them back
and move them on again, the hushed current
follows its course.