Heat Splinters
off every blade of grass
sway gently
in the rippling breeze
burnt is the dead summer
A sympathetic sky fights
the God of fate
but loses perpectual blue.
Summer’s flaming storm
carved out horrific
a devastating fate
the cracked Farmers loss
cattle carcasses mangled and burst
the lucky maggots gain.
Storm ravaged river
torrents of the homeless
gouge a new path
silt banks crumble and decay
the Taniwha must adapt
to a Changing Landscape.

Bloom

Pohutakawa ancestors
cling desperate to crumbling cliffs
their strong roots
long tentacles stretching
Into the sea’s crashing tide
fierce winds beat dying branches
blood red blooms drop
miniature floating vessels
Into the shifting artist pallet.
for insects to navigate
centuries of fighting
the harsh coastal element
Impossible survival
to bloom beautiful.