KORU, PITAU



The fern’s frond gestures, signals, is a
            pause in the creation,
to the Māori is life force and natural beauty,
            to the Pākehā is the
baroque volute of the past and the coiled
            steel spring of the future,
and in the midst of that creation is the wind-
            dancing plume in the
hat of a king, the quill of a poet, adorning
            a warrior’s helm,

            a funeral cortege.

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