“go tell it on the mountain / what we ate / how we lived / about the bananas / Wolfgang reared in gray water / and the bathtub on the porch”
Aotearoa
go tell it on the mountain
what we ate
how we lived
about the bananas
Wolfgang reared in gray water
and the bathtub on the porch
because there were no neighbors
and the dog liked to watch
about the corn
born and roasted in the earth
the earth-oven
lay your body down
beneath a boiling sky, the spray
reaching
marigold silver, the gulls wheel
above, below, indigenous injustice
reexamined, redefined
how the lambs cried, how the pups called
from their nesting perch
how they scared the sheep with their youth
and how we sat on the shore, pineapple juice
slipping down the carotid, the hyoid
broken
the tot in his squeaking shoes
mouth pebbles, swallow sand
and the popsicle sticks left behind
to be swept away