Raorao Wāina // Wine Country

Ngā aka wāina
matatira tonu ana //
matomato ana te tipu
puta noa
i tēnei raorao haumako -
te tūranga taketake o ngā maunga,
te ūkaipō tuaukiuki
o te apahau -
ōku kēhua tīhengi
ōku whakahiangongo
e kōrewarewa noa ana
i te anuanu o te pō
āta hānene ana ki ngā pūtoi hua
e tautau ai.

Ka hīoioi te pāhauhau
Ka maiea mai te rā i te rua
pūkākā rawa ia
ki te whenua raupā

hīrangi ai
whakakipakipa ai
te haka a Tānerore //
Ka tata ngingiha te pātītī
kāore, āe,
Ka tineia
e te haumākū o Papatūānuku -
te kāinga tuatahi
o ngā moemoeā
a kui mā, a koro mā //
te kōpū o tō mātou reo
e motu mai ana i te tatau o te pō //
te okiokinga
o ngā kōiwi
nā te rāngai tāwhati
i rohai ai
ki te whakaero
i te oneone //

Kua maoka ō hua i a rātou
Kua mākona tō apo
Kua pūriko ō ngutu
i tō wāina -
te kōkōwai
o tōku tātai.

Sprawling vineyards
rooted row after row //
in these once wild undulating lands

that hold up our mountains
and nourish our ghosts
night-walking up and down
the strange aisles of clustered fruit
making the trees rustle
as the day rises rushed and thick //
hot summer breath
on the cracked crust soil
te haka a Tānerore
the hovering shimmering heat
bleaching the green
from the grass ready to burn,
to crackle itself into flames 
extinguished by the moisture locked below
in the cool damp
earth home of our beginning//
of our end //
of our language once doomed
to be numbered
among the dead tongues

layer upon layer upon layer
of blood lines
mighty rivers
rushing
in the land’s deep belly
drawn up through knotted roots
to fatten your fruit
and fill your mouths with wine.

Maggie Leigh White | She / Her (Ngāti Kahungunu / Pākehā) is a writer and painter whose work explores her whakapapa, her reclamation of te reo Māori, and the becoming-ness of identity. Her poems have been published in Salty, Saltwater Love, and most recently Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland University Press 2023).