I am learning te reo Māori.
Learning about macrons and extended vowels.
How to put a new language in my mouth
new shapes in my tongue and cheeks.
Roll r’s like stones down a mountain.
Like Scottish r’s.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Like the purr of a cat.
My teeth rebel. They are in unfamiliar land.
My eyes slice new pathways from synapse to vocal chord.
There are brambles and sudden ditches.
Putiputi – flower. Rorohiko- computer – electric brain.
A new taste for the buds. My first
language that isn’t soaked in colonising blood.
By Alyson Hallett