You were mine
When we sat on my stepfathers drive
And Orion hung above
Hung like a vessel
For love
You, sixteen
And breaking my heart
Me, fifteen
Awake thinking of your arms
Hands all embracing
River mud taking
Virginity
My four post bed
Carry me home
Drunk again
Down the streets
Gently, to sleep
You work for your father
Your hair is longer
Halo
Rose sheets
You are the first to kiss
Me there
You fasten amber stones
Around my neck
Hold my tongue
I’m your chosen one
Darkness inching
Fighting in beautiful places
Tearing up photos
You take of me
Naked
And inching closer still
I am now thin
Summer lifts my dress
Shows you my legs
And you wrap yourself
Around me
When I’d never loved you
So much
This much
Then I kiss another one
the drumming boy
Confessing
Drunk
On Upoko hill
(I danced
Cried
Laughed
Fell to the earth with you)
I must go
Do not weep
But you cry for two weeks
Bring me kowhai seed
Protea stalks
Iries tall and solitary
What do I need to become what I want to be?
Birds flee
Migrate
They’d been sleeping in your veins
Do you want to cut your hair, angel?
Do you want to cut these years off?
Everyone a star
It’s like we’re free at last
To be who we are
We bury us
Let our bodies say goodbye
Unravel
My dear angel
My friend
Who I kiss sometimes
I dig the irises
Like mama does
They’ll flower again
They’ll be
Purple bruises
Like the ones I come to make
On the neck of a lover
Born from the sucking
Of my lips
My chest is all woman
Made of unearthed irises
Cultivated
Over and over
My chest is all woman
And when I turn my head
I am still alive
For the sunrise
And the sunset