In this poem, commissioned by Britomart and entitled In This Place, Wellington-based writer Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu) – she’s also a music therapist and taonga puoro practitioner who has played with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Trinity Roots and Whirimako Black – contemplates the solitude of self-isolation.
In This Place
In this place
two women lie in the middle of the street
to feel how cooling tar moulds to the body
without holding it in place
to feel how gently
the earth curves
In this place all the doors are closed
spirits come and go as they please
last season’s sunflowers
moving to face the heat
A woman steps into a field
she swirls her legs in daylight
when darkness comes
she continues
to breathe deeply
In this place you are alone
your veins full of witnesses
for each note you sing
in the blanket of time
that you tuck over them all
And in this place a child tiptoes on a stool
to help his mother cut fruit
stir sugar warmed through
so he can lick a wooden spoon
and realise that she
is just a little bit
magic
Now all my other homes
don’t tell me I’ve been away too long
they just say I miss you
the light here
is just as you remember
when it touches your mountain
snow is spun to gold
And in this place all the wild birds
forget how to mimic their masters
and so again we learn our language
from feathered siblings
speaking in perfect fifths
major seconds trickle down valleys
evaporating into songs
droplets of liquid silver
falling down on our ears
we learn that this is the same place
that the songs of our grandmothers
were born
And in this place
a child sits for hours
with crumbs in his hand
waiting for the birds
to take his offering
