–
This warm, tropical wind breathes like a sigh
Cuts like a warm scythe through winter’s frost
Whanganui a wooden bowl to hold the mildness
While the West Coast floods:
Increasingly frequent “freak weather events”.
–
Laundry dries in the rich dark
Unless tossed to the crumpled earth
Pine pollen dusts our world with fluorescent lime
Sticky and proteinous
Lifted in clouds from the plantations that surround
These paper pages flutter like a startled bird
In my hands, trying to fly away
–
Everything wants to move in this wind
Harbinger of great change
I dig my fingers into the living soil
Anchors in the current
Roots in the storm.
–
Anonymous Submission, 2022