Hinemoana by Stacey Teague
By Wasafiri Editor on June 15, 2021 in
in the far-spread ocean solitudes
Hinemoana hides herself so perfectly
in the fold of the tide
she thinks she would prefer to stay untethered
so moves from place to place
Hinemoana is a blue hallway
with no adornments
she is a backlit expanse
something to be caught adrift in
Hinemoana is not something to take possession of
she might let you climb into the house of her body
but you will not return from there
Hinemoana dreams of biting down on flesh, viscera
spitting out bone as she goes
her desire is more likely to destroy
than to save
she erodes the land with her wildness
only to appear as a footnote in someone else’s story
she sees herself in the surface
it gives her pause
she does not recognise herself
a mirror reflecting another mirror
Hinemoana begins to notice
life growing inside her
aglow in the darkness
when the baby is born
she gives it as a sacrifice to the sea
slips the pink lump into the bloody water
like an anchor to the sea floor
—
Stacey Teague (Ngāti Maniapoto/Ngāpuhi) is a writer and editor from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the poetry editor for Awa Wahine, has her Masters in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and has one book, Takahē (Scrambler Books, 2014) and two chapbooks, not a casual solitude (Ghost City Press, 2017) and hoki mai (If A Leaf Falls Press, 2020).
Wasafiri 106: the Water issue is out now.
