A wise mentor who dies
too soon
is a great loss
to his people
approaching the 21st century.
A mean-spirited government
threatens in a
light-hearted manner
with divisive policies that
cut across the cultural track.
They smack of heresies
and inconclusiveness
No comfort to the red-necks.
And Matiu Rata dies
and the whole country sighs.
The neighbour sang
to the owl in the tree
and his neighbour
hearing his wild
exotic song,
sang back.
And so it went on each night
the two men singing to each other
in the dark
each imagining the owl in the tree.
Until their wives suspected something odd.
And they set up watch on
the pair of innocents abroad.
Singing their special owl song in the dark.
However, the pussycat stayed inside
warming itself by the fire
watching the orange-red flames
leap higher and higher.
How to tell them there was no owl there?
Like telling a 6 year old
Father Christmas is dead
or the tooth fairy's got enough teeth.