103. New Tenants

I walk into a house that is spotless and clean
no pictures or furnishings or anything at all
just carpeted, warm and seeking new tenants
who'll make it a beautiful home it might seem

I peer through the window out into the night
where everything's black like I'm in outter space
I rush out the door where I'm met by 3 kuia
brandishing buckets and mops in my face

'What do you do here, what do you want?'
asking me loudly with a tumultuous tone
It's then that I realise this house is my body
a vessel all ready for new people to own

I turn outwards and look into the dark
and see scores of others now making their way
towards my clean body, towards my clean house
sharing their gifts with my hands and my mouth

* kuia (elderly women)

53. Hauora Waiora

I turn to my partner whose stricken with fear
his eyes wide open and almost in tears
I look straight past him and see the door open
turning instead from it's opposite side

Fear and darkness now fill the room
so I leap from my bed and onto my feet
Objects now move with sinister smiles
plodding and moving slowly twards him

I lay hands apon them and say the Lord's Prayer
but falter and cough and forget all the words
"Go into the Light" I hear myself shout
and blow cross the top of them watching them fall

I glance at my partner whose no-longer there
instead a poor soul's thrashing on our own bed?!
I straddle his body and hold his arms down
and dribble saliva three times in his mouth

"Go into the Light" I say to his demons
while using the sacredness of my own spittle
After 3 times his body succumbs and his face
all forlorn is now sweet and serene

In times when my voice or words may escape me
I know there are other tools I can use
Tāne breathed life into the first maiden
and whose very own water cleanses the soul

Blessed are we whose body's a vessel
guided and used by all that is good
For it is not us who does all this work
but the spirit of others and all who come through