smeòrach

I dreamt a bird flew down from forever to kiss me

pressing petalled lips close against loneliness

leaving little traces, like crumbs of sea

I dreamt a bird flew down from forever

to watch dawn drool butter over salt

to watch swollen lives chant kindness

to watch daylight lurk in the lamplight

promising to outlive the dance

I dreamt a bird flew down from forever

to worship the candle of a lover’s face

fleshed dreamers cuddling in coves

ferrying one palm towards another palm

one hope towards another hope

pulse-plush temples constellating

with the shores

I dreamt a bird flew down from forever

to wake the world

to untuck a valley’s vanishing

to unshackle the wings of ocean

from tarry tides

& memorise the cadence of creeks

I dreamt a bird flew down from forever

                                           with wheuna

                                           with river

                                           with sea

honeyed wingbeats buttering universe

making an ancestor of me

making a dreamer of me

making a lover of me

             a  l i f e

(twinned stars trip,

fall from forever

side   by    side

& walk together

     into the

          song…)

Eartha Davis is a woman of Ngāpuhi and Celtic heritage living on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung land. She dreams of rivers. màthair beinn, her debut poetry collection of poetry, is out now with Vagabond Press.