Living Beneath the Sky Egmont towers, so white and hard in the endless sky Waiting like a broken clock Into december, still above me and frozen Waves are white dragons, foam with this same ice A charge of tiny beasts, torn open by the wind And me, they break against my bare thighs current like electricity that surges through me Our winter pale skin is sliced numb Shoulders tightened, high, breasts lifted Gasping and resisting something of the water tempest inside Feet pushing against the outward pull of the tide Hanging in water my form distorts Like the projection of pigment from above to this water There's a blue sky. But No. This is no blue sea. Here we know better Up close Reality bites In our eyes It swallows us, a tang in our throats And drips transparent of our chins And chops our bodies into blurs In Taranaki we wade into shore Salt stinging on our faces and ankles as if we had risen from a seabed
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