Mana Aki Tanga

You are here
Drawing together at the glacial waters edge
You tomorrow's dead, blowing cold-fire
Not pausing for mountain mornings,
selfless pictures or second winds.
When cerebral engines shutdown
misinformation rejected, cloistered,
grows fangs in the shadows,
creates anonymous identities,
bites and draws blood.
Like its just another Tuesday

You are here
To sanitize. world worn wise-won hands.
Hands who birth nations
but have no faces on walls.
nor names on foundations.
You are here
to democratise excluded, paraded, jaded heads.
Heads who bow in reverence to STEM hegemonies
but will never pore over polices
nor mind global legacies.

You are here
‘shod, stepping over people who walk barefoot.
Hearts in their feet covered in dirt,
even before they are dead.
The way you cross boundaries borders on violence.
Violence on others knowing; violence on knowing others.
The space between is where can you lie, quietly.
Or raging, tell the truth.
Unfeigned, unfettered unforgettable.

Now you are here
Leave Flexing, doing the Tic Tocs with trash.
Bring your human-in-the-loop.
Wake Woke. Reawaken.
Evolve. Rejuvenate. Nurture. Regenerate.
You know the words. Do Them
Just live - in Wakeful Dreaming
Dream the talk Think in ink
Be you – Be with life
Pregnant in your first environment

Now – you are here
Know this
Bravery takes courage.
You must speak by your eyes.
You must listen by heart
Walk along the river of life.
You will meet yourself.
In the story written for you
tapped in the colour of your history.
worn in the weight of your skin
See that you are no more no less
than your rivers, your sky, your mountains.
Say your name,
but not before you say
the names of those who you made you.
Keep company with good humans.
Never do anything alone.
Give without expectation.
In the end you are giving yourself.