Kiss

Kiss

This song is true, Te Waikoropupū
My beautiful friend – unexpected – dead

My fervent friend, who in a spontaneous moment
Kissed me, passionate on the open ground

Of the Takaka Market, while his friends watched
Cool and casual, as Takaka loves to be –

& forever this kiss holds and haunts me
Thunders down the valley of my days

’til I return, again and again to Waitapu, ask
Why? Why? Why so ardent on my lips?

What is this manly passion my Kōtuku?
But he’s gone, gone, gone

Yet, his kiss stays, stays, stays
In the fertile swamplands of my days

Where I return, again and again
To the tender heart, of Te Waikoropupū

~
‘Waitapu:’ my friend Trevor Koberstein lived at Waitapu (In Maori, Sacred Waters) close to Te Waikoropupū Springs. Trevor died unexpectedly two days before I travelled to Mohua (Golden Bay) to write this series of poems.

 ‘Kōtuku:’ Trevor and I share the totem of the sacred kōtuku (White heron). In Maori mythology, the kōtuku is the ‘rare one’ and ‘spirit messenger’ and is associated with death and accompanies the dead back to their origins. In the poem, I address Trevor by his spiritual name; Kōtuku