Where oh Whare

A phantom winter chills my limbs

Though I stand in full sun.

Water laps my ankles, pulling, pushing,

The scent of summer flowers

Wafts in an air thinner than I've known.

When the sun dips,

Stars unknown to me reveal themselves

And my mother wakes a world away.

We share twilight to midnight,

And I watch our namesakes upside down

Witnessing skies unfamiliar

Tracking stars I cannot find.

The earth beneath my feet remains

And that is all that is unchanged

And for half a decade

I will rise with foreign bird song

And set with a sun that sinks below tides.

I have gone to the ends of the earth

But in my being

I have brought all I know here with me.

Where oh whare*

Will my feet take me

Will my breath propel me,

In this land known for wayfinding,

I hope I find my way

Where oh whare,

I may not know.

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*whare - Māori word for house whose location changes relative to where the sun, moon, or stars rise or set. The Te kapehu whetū (star compass) features 7 whare used for wayfinding.