poem – Page 22 – June Paisa Perkins

Kite Girl

She looks at the kite small and bright

She wonders if she can make herself light

For the air and for the possibility of flight

She checks out the string and the physics of things

She follows the plastic rainbow streamers that will make it work

And she dreams of what life seems in the centre of rings

She is the kite girl who has found her inner bling

She will dance and take the breath out of the wasps sting

She is the kite and the kite is her.

At least that’s what she thinks as the world blinks.

(c) June Perkins

[Time to start making some poetry films I think – putting video, poetry, photography and performance together.]

Here is a feather for Flight

To strengthen your wings

To put the world right

Take this peace feather

For all of life’s weather

Add to it

more for your wings.

Who are the women you treasure?

Who helped you into the sky?

Speak to them, pray for them, work with them

Strengthen them –

Give them a feather of peace.

Give them a feather of joy.

Here is a feather for flight.

The old garden is gone
It has become a secret garden of memory

I still hear the bird song there
sometimes I am sure the eagle
is flying to bring me home there

I fly between the kauri pine branches
and watch the flocks of lorikeets

But I waken to a different place
a garden full of orchids
purple, pink and yellow

Reflections of sunrise and sunset
in pool water surrounded by sunbirds
and beheaded palms
that hint at what happened
everywhere in this place

The place where Yasi came
and did a horrible tantruming dance
through the gardens

We grow more patient
and cheerful as the birds
return to their roosts

A tree broken but still with a touch
of green and flower
is a tree of great power.