Michele Bannister

Ōtautahi in Spring

The patupaiarehe visiting from the shaken hills
avoid the aromas of the fish and chip shop.
On their way to gaze at Shag Rock
(now known as Shag Pile)
the skimming wings of cormorants
brush their shoulders in benediction:
remaining, though the estuary is filthy.

Out on the long and level mudflats
the godwits come in from Siberia —
still returning.

Michele Bannister misses living in Christchurch. Her poetry has appeared in Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, and other venues, and is forthcoming in Ideomancer and Goblin Fruit.