Pōua’s oriori

Pōua’s oriori says
do not come in the eighth month
               Koi i te rā o te Waru

Pōua’s oriori says
do come in the eighth month
               Nāhaku e whakaputa nei
from where you do you come, e Tama?
from the ripened womb?
               Kai te hūareare i puta
open, clear of obstruction
projecting out, mucous-lined
               Te Wahine a Mākū
               moonstruck son of spittle
and phlegm releasing
through the great expanse
               Mahoranuiātea
               Ka puta a Tamanuiterā
You must follow the order of things, e Tama
               Ia Te Moretū
               Ia Te Moremau
               Ia Te Moretaketake 

Pōua’s oriori says
do not come in the time of Mākū
that wet cold world
congealer of lung
no air will enter
no song
no chant 

Look for the post in the far off
distance
look for tiny eyes of ancestors
               Tō tipuna āhua tōrikiriki
cast away to Pōrakahau
where all of the pou
align like the tide
eyes watching
from the sky 

               Ko Te Aotūroa
               Ko Te Aomārama
               Te tai ka whati 

The tide breaks
see the glint in the brine
they come for you, e tama
a shimmering silvery-blue
in otherwordly
twilight 

               We sleep when we’re tired
               We eat when we’re hungry
               We are born when
               whakapapa
               & moontide
               shine

Published in Turbine Kapohau 2022.Includes selected lines from an oriori called ‘E Tama’ supplied by my pōua Teone Taare Tikao, to Herries Beattie in 1920.