I count my Blessings (Ānei te tohu)

POETRY | FEATURE | TE AO MĀORI | TANGATA WHENUA / LOCAL

Written by Elise Sadlier (she/her) | @elise.sadlier | Contributing Writer

Illustrated by Kiki Hall (she/her) | @kiku_masan | Contributing Illustrator

1. two tūī dive overhead a pīwakawaka haunts each of our steps a girl passes us, eyes lifted I point to the kererū fat-breasted, drunk on miro, swaying She says, “I think the kererū just shat on me.” But sis, that’s good luck.
   

2. A moss log, heavy with rain. From it — hundreds of gold caps, bruising purple in my hands. We wrap them in kawakawa, tuck them into your peke.
   

3. At the bakery, one magpie, then two. We’ve been so in love lately — last weekend

   you took me to Kiwi Valley Farms,

   where we fed

   all manner of animals

   
   

4. That evening,

   my sister calls.

   She is having a baby —

   my first iramutu.

   A baby is always a blessing.

   
   

5. In the morning

   the manu sing outside the window

   heralding fortunes.

   The sea is always still.

   Te Rākaunui rises,

   waxy orange,

   and we dance beneath it.