Two Poems

Mihi  
for Margaret Hickey, 1927–2018

The birds and animals of our mother’s land greet
     the birds and animals of your land.
Her waterways, tributaries
and flooded plains
    greet yours. Now she is gone, she joins
the dead of her tribe
in greeting
       your dead. And her dead
birds and animals offer this, their heartfelt
address, to your dead birds, animals.

And to the living. Her constellations greet your
     constellations and if these happen to be
     the same constellations
they wrap their arms around
     themselves.
Her fruit trees, in season, greet
...