Kahukeke - Kiri Piahana-Wong

Here at Hikurangi,
the waters pour
down Waitekahu
and into the sea.
On the threshold,
the surf surges up
against the river.
Quietly the water
is absorbed.
Even in flood, the
river is never as
strong as the ocean
it returns to.
Kahukeke used to
kneel here, washing
in the river.

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Kiri Piahana-Wong (21st century) New Zealand
Source: NZ Poetry Shelf
Kiri’s note on the poem: In this poem I am attempting to inhabit the lives and voices of the early tūpuna (the Te Kawerau a Maki people, kaitiaki of the Waitakere Ranges region in West Auckland).