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eye bright and koromiko weep for me
buttercup by stream and rock
spread your yellow glow
that softly lights the under-chins of children
and everlasting daisies – white faces held
like stars in acts of worship –
have faith in me too
all you tenacious dwellers of rock and bog
woollyheads and cottonwoods
humble inhabitants of lowland scrubs
I’ve passed, I will not now fail you
there was a moment, it seems long ago
when one boot caught
arresting my slide, ice like steel beneath me
and human hopes returned, a panic lifted
but then the skate was on again
a shocked acceleration in an afternoon descent
the raw cruelty of speed
and dumb impact with rocks
limbs numbing like the successive
electric blackouts of huddled suburbs by night
and I am mind-lean, flung from the slope
that earlier we carefully climbed
I am falling
high over the gravelfields
that this morning we carefully picked our way through –
dry sharp rocks that clicked and shifted
as we tested them for weight, treading gingerly,
a slow journey in a mountain’s rainshadow
the rocks above us faintly echoing
milled by a glacier edge
and gravelfields I knew then your silence
was deep
that the long shadows cast upon you
were engulfing –
and it now begins to unfold
I knew then that I knew you
have known you always as home
to which this is merely return
an unravelling of mystery –
your arms outstretched
your mouth open to greet me
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