from Scoria
previously published in Geographies (Auckland University Press, 1982)
'Come to the Manukau
to the fields of Tainui
for scented grasses'
this to Reia
sleek bodied taniwha
dolphin god of the Ngatimatera
playing in sunlight
in the shallows of Hauraki
the enticement of scented herbs
that brought him swimming northward
where club and cooking pot waited
Sunrise
long shadow
and out of shadow
voices of Ngatimatera
crying vengeance on
Maungakiekie
Maungawhau
the pas of Tainui
*
Veronica
of the spread wing in sunlight
and to Dieffenbach
that other veronica
speciosa
the koromiko
in lilac flower among flax
its scent on the air
'where this shrub grows
is richest soil'
green-bronze mirrors of flax
turning in the breeze
catching sunlight
on the slopes of 'Manakao Harbour'
*
Manungawhau/hill of the whau tree
from hilltop the two harbours
and westward
the Waitakere Range
and he saw fires on Maungakiekie
and called his people inside the palisades
stomachs tight
fear in the pits at sundown
crouching behind the lashed stakes of manuka
moon cold over the gulf
and silence
Sunrise
long shadow
and out of shadow
voices of the Ngatimatera
crying vengeance on Tainui
for the death of Reia
mid-morning the palisades breachd
high noon
the last skull crushed
on the slopes of the crater
Unbroken silence of the tapu
harbours blue and gold
isthmus green
spring wind in the whau's white flower
among the rotting stakes
Maungawhau/Mt Eden
200 years of silence
hill of death
hill of heaven
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