FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

 To see the whole world

from the eye of a seagull, blue

and curving away from us.

A video of the ocean

filmed on an iPhone,

a video of a child

filmed on an iPhone,

a video of a burning tent

and sand which is a colour I have never seen before.

You and I both know what a dead child looks like. You and I

know the weight of a bag of flour,

the weight of a clear sky and always a video

filmed on an iPhone. A father

is an ocean. The ocean, which supposedly

connects us all, bearing witness in its own way.

Some things are too big to be eroded. There are cliffs

that sing of rivers. There are rocks

that bleed when broken,

sand that weeps, land that is ancient and weary

and waiting for freedom. Bearing witness

is letting it get in your eyes and teeth,

swallowing the sand when it blows in

like little pieces of laughter.

It means a river, always a river, and

silence over a canyon,

breath under a deluge. Sometimes

a video filmed on an iPhone

is the difference between the sky staying up

or falling, something beyond a palmful of thin blue light.

Loretta Riach is a Pākehā writer and artist from Aotearoa, based in Naarm. Much of their work is concerned with landscape, solidarity, and ghosts, but they also like to write love poems. This writing can be found in journals such as Starling, The Spinoff, Min-a-rets, Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems, and Poetry Yearbook NZ. They love geology, swimming in rivers, and telling stories.