Sweet nothings (three months in)

If you are the godwit fidgeting,

I am sun-compass set to rivermouth.

If you are pneumatophore coming up for air,

I am propagule carried by heat tides.

As you fish in saltmarsh and mudflat,

I decay in gravel and sand.

You, aeolian grain down the stoss slope,

I, fluvial upwelling at the slipface.

You might think you are the best time of year,

but I am the stoic recovery of disordered seasons.

If you are the long-range forecast, it depends—

I am either open-cell honeycomb cloud

or cold front stalling at the edge of the bed.

Nicola Easthope (Pākehā/Tauiwi) is a poet and teacher living in the Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai lands of Raumati South on the Kāpiti Coast. She recently completed a Master of Creative Writing through Massey University and is now back teaching high school Psychology, Philosophy and Social Studies.