THE UNBEARABLE WHITENESS OF BEING



The Pākehā arrived
smuggled in European settler blood
like an illicit drug.        

When a Pākehā dies
their soul travels through television waves
to Auckland, (pausing only to name Rangitoto,
the only island in the gulf it knows)
and bungee jumps from the
Heaven-blaspheming syringe of the Sky Tower
into the sky.

Because you are haughty of heart,
you say, “A god am I!
I occupy a godly throne in the heart of the sea!”

                        Then,
outpacing swift light itself, the little soul
that moved in too big a big body,
passes between the sullen embers of dead stars
to the centre of the galaxy.
There, a vast black hole sucks it in, swallowing
like a bad girl,
and sends it back to the beginning of the universe
to start all over again.in

Oz, Berlin, or maybe London.

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