Kaikoura Anniversary

The mirage of yesterday shimmers over today, pearly, dulcet, raining over sunshine memory with an allure of tones chanted as poetry. Nonverbal cues, squawks, screams, cheeps, brush my ears over the crash of waves and the stolen whispers of conversation I share with you. If I pivot toward today, six feet gained in earthquake, large uplifted seashore, risen like spires at my feet, has shaken all doubts of time travel sameness. The birds, so delicate, flaring tail or hopping up limbs flood in flocks of chattering house sparrows saying take up dream, favor yesterday’s search for birds and make it sing with an allure of land, heart, mystery spare consolation of the passing of days, spare reflection of weather changing, eroding, uplifting. This is what I would remember, the whale bones, the Kiwi Christmas tree, the hikes upward into Kanaka woods, and the sun lifting heat and heart toward future.