My Tears Stream
Down The Uretara
I am pulled,
Drawn,
To the gravelled path.
Back into nature.
The twine
Tying me to the mountains,
The rivers,
The wetlands.
My iris an opulent frame
Capturing the mist
That connects pine
With kāuri,
Endemic and introduced
Holding equal beauty.
I restrain myself from diving in,
Burying deep into the viscous mud
So that toetoe may burst
From my frame.
I wish to be one with nature,
My whakapapa,
For a part of me is missing
Above the surface.
The part that smiles
As rivers run,
Overjoyed at harmony
Between earth and
Sea, awestruck by the
Duck that preens.
As my body decomposes
Swallowed by the earth,
Papatūānuku cradles me to sleep.
Until my voice
Is that which
Echoes through the
Beak of the kōtuku,
Until my milky skin
Replaces the clouds,
Until my gangly limbs
Protrude from the flax bush,
Until the gunk
From the corner of my eye
Stretches
Between coprosma twigs
Hosting hundreds of spider eggs
That will contain
My resilience,
Until my body
Is reunited
With my tūpuna,
Until my tears stream down
The Uretara.
Layla Hoskin
Year 12
Tauranga Girls’ College
