Stacey Teague
Mothlight
I think of your body at night
how it used to glow
and bend into me
like refracted light
now there’s only the outline
where you left your phosphorescence
I feel myself turn from silken pink
to bitter yellow
*
people affix themselves to me
like moths under the moon
but now I see bodies as they are
things that love you and then stop
I learn that being alone
is a sky that pulls me through
*
when I wake up it’s heavy water
only just afloat in the cold of the morning
place the loss in the tiny parcel of my heart
tie it up in a knot so that
it may come loose again
write down the deep green-blue
feelings like paua shells
let the light move through my hair
towards the colour I need
*
when I return home
the whenua moves its arms up to greet me
climb the hill to see the faraway beach
feel lonely like mislaid keys
it’s good to be there in the quiet
saying to myself i’m real i’m real
as the feelings inside shrink red into shape
Marigold
how can I sleep with the wound / growing in size / it throbs byzantium / the doctor sliced open my skin / violet / and put something in / it felt hard like a seed / then they pushed it deeper / covered it up with soil / velvet / I tried not to look at it / as they opened me up / amethyst / I felt more and more bodiless / azure / then they wrapped me up in bandages / eggshell / now the vines are dreamy in my veins / the flowers open their petals / all bloom and nightshade / they carry what they want through me / vermilion / I am afraid to touch whatever was planted / juniper / the incision will heal / other things will not / can I flourish now / amaranth / outside the berries grow / plum / inside other things grow / lilac / in the morning light / marigold / how is it already so late / and so early
Stacey Teague (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāpuhi) is a poet and embroiderer who lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She is the poetry editor for Scum Mag and has been published in Landfall, Turbine|Kapohau, Cordite Poetry Review and Queen Mobs. She has a website if you would like to peruse: staceyteague.com.