TAIKA DAVIS
For My Father
a man from Fiji who loves the Mountains
if yesterday was something wasted
then today is a new spring day
tell me be patient
today I will listen
I will wait for you
dirty fingers
legs crossed
in halfway blossomed weather
my once balled fists
are now hands cupped
take them in yours
touch my fingertips to Mountain passes
show me how to hang my grief upon their summits
how to plunge my small fists into soft spring snow
cup your hands to my ears
make to brave to the Wind
teach me to listen
make me humble to its howling demands
guide me, on Rivers descending
on winter’s dying days
frigid foamy and wild
I wish to be rugged until I am not
rugged like those men who know God
like the southerly that curls its finger into november
like you
until one day
you and I will reach the estuary
I will taste
freedom in salt water
tell my veins they are ready
tell my lungs of the vastness
Lako yani noqu Lewa,
I have put the world in your palms
Taika Davis is a Kailoma poet and uni student living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She likes to spend her time climbing rocks and frolicking in large bodies of water. Her poetry can be found written in the sand or lost in the pages of her many, many notebooks.