This place is void of sound I walk
at night to catch glimpses of your
stunted wings through Akatarawa and
Whakatane I walk through darkness
waiting for your call your weak
reminder that you have not left
this place your plea for remembrance
in Aotearoa. Little bird, where is
Tane Mahuta now as the trees come down
for wider streets in Muriwai I walk
under moonlight trying to be unseen
like you trying to be mistaken
for the landscape in Rangitoto.
Little bird, I wonder what you
have done in a past life to deserve
no flight I imagine you are Maui
and were sentenced to a land-bound
life among the Pohutakawas and
Wheki-pongas and we have made
you our martyr thank you for the
fire.

Have you ever stood,
craning your neck to look up into the canopy
of the ancient kauri, Tane Mahuta,
while peace and birdsong permeate your soul?

Have you ever felt
the crusty spray and the satanic whiff
as the Pohutu geyser shoots aloft
while a dozen languages bubble through te reo?

Have you ever shivered
in the receding darkness,
standing in the china-white sand as you waited
for the first sunrise over Makorori Beach?

Have you ever sat
on the summit of Mt Taranaki
and eaten a well-deserved sandwich
while cows grazed far below on the lush, volcanic-rich pasture?

Have you ever experienced
that mixture of fear and awe
as an orca’s dorsal breached beside your too-fragile kayak
in the shining waters of the Abel Tasman?

Have you ever paused
atop a ski run on Coronet Peak
and reflected on the reflections
of sunlight dancing on snow and water?

Have you ever felt sorry
for tourism chiefs and advertising creatives
trapped in offices in the Auckland CBD
dreaming up “100% Pure” and “Clean and Green”?

So its true.
It was all just a matter of distance.
You
thought you loved me, merely because I always there, the itch you can't quite reach, the attention you think you might have wanted
I,
held your hand through the weeks of uteric pain and as the gas in your chest cavity slowly moved between your organs.
I,
gave myself to no one but you in no hope of gain and
You,
lashed me to shreds and shards of a man every time you snapped your gnashing jaws at me, tearing chunks out of my mauri.
The trust once between us looks like the flowers you carelessly left on your windowsill to dry up and die, leaving me to wonder whether it ever existed at all.

It was nothing but proximity love.

I was told that you found a new lover,
and to be Frank I am Tame and over.
But to say I spread the rumours is far from close.
I won't say what you want to hear,
so you just want ****** believe it.
You'll bend as much as Tane Mahuta and you will lose because of it.

I wait for a hand to hold through pain and fear.
I learn from this
I leave this
I no longer know you.
But,
did I ever.