Eva Poland
king country
Deep within the King Country
Papatūānuku’s skin is an ocean of copper and gold
egg yolk and fish fingers
Pollock on steroids in summer.
Shards of our mother’s broken bones break, like waves
from the surface of the earth
forming barricades on which Tāne’s warriors stand
row upon row
they pull strength up through their roots
(as I pull my strength up through you)
their protective arms merging together like a great taniwha
or a tendril of smoke.
Deep within the King Country
we who are many, become one again beneath Rangi’s chest
and sink back, children once more
into the soil from which we were moulded.
Eva Poland is currently in Year 13 at Wellington High School. She enjoys writing, listening to Rat Boy and watching her friends fall off their skateboards.