Hawaiki
My first
university
the freezing works
at Horotiu –
my first professor
a tohunga
in white overalls
and gumboots
who worked
on the boning floor.
One evening drinking
beer
as the setting sun
was turning the Waikato River red
in the course
of our conversation
he told me
he could trace his
whakapapa
back to Hawaiki.
I enquired ‘where is
Hawaiki?’
His answer
I can’t recall.
On the other side
of the street
beneath the bloodlines
of an evening sky
a boy on a bike
chanted
Āke
Ake
Ake!
