Named
Streets for writers,

Dickens, Emerson, Shakespeare,

High school for a missionary,

Colenso.

A city,

Napier,

for some old white man, because they always are,

or for some battle where my people were slaughtered by yours,

or for some event, with no relevance to the land, upon which an ill-placed flag whips itself frenzied.

Buildings resurrected, upon the reclaimed.

So numerous now, like oil slicking through the ocean, nothing untouched.

Bluff Hill so full, it comically threatens to topple,

into a gentrified, barely recognisable from its wharfie beginnings, Ahuriri.

This layering,

upon places ancient,

Ahuriri, Heretaunga, Mārewa, Maraenui, Onekawa,Pirimai.

Of peoples ancient,

Ngāti Kahungunu.

Of a sea, so dangerous

we knew, don’t get too close

A class system so structured

private boarding schools thrive

while, kohanga reo don’t

Aertex shirts, moleskins, navy jerseys, fob chains – the uniform

Leathered-up Mongrel Mob patches – the response

Napier, created like so many others in New Zealand,

in the image of a mother, oceans away,

unseen and unknown.

and, where you died, and where I won’t.
We may have been born in the same place, Blair

walked the same streets

perhaps, even known the same people?

It’s unlikely, you shared a beer with Dad at the Pro,

or sorted peas, at Watties with Mum.

Did you know about Te Kooti? and what happened to him at the prison?

Did you trace the profile of Te Mata?
Did you drive Devils Elbow, swim in Tukituki, attend Anzac parades in Clive Square? cycle along

Marine Parade? visit the Aquarium? line up for the pictures at the Odeon, scoff cakes at Brown Owl Bakery?
You’d probably already left for Victoria University, when Marineland opened in 1965. Was it by railcar or bus?
In Wellington, were you shocked by the cold, the taste of the water but excited by all that, possibility? 
Decades, separate us

your walking through life as a Pākehā man

                                                                        my walking through life as wahine Māori

Perhaps, we would have stood side-by-side

fists tight, shoulders taut,

legs tight, face taut

                                                                        ready to write

ready to right

                                                              flight ready

fight ready