Malaga: The Journey (from Goddess Muscle, 2020)

(for Alice Suisana Hunt)

It is a spindrift
 that rises from the body.
 Our final exhale
 beyond the breath,
 where we give ourselves up 
 in completion
 to life.

Where everything that you are
 leaves behind 
 everything that you were.


 Departing 

that faithful friend 
 of the body. 

Its soft limbs.
 Its forgiving flesh. 

Muscles, skin, sinews ‒

all that held you together ‒
 so gently,
 for so long.

A song 

of water, blood,

breath and bone.


We acknowledge all that you have left behind.
 

All that you have given.

And what a life you have seen,
 and what a life you have been
 and how we have loved you.

We stay here,
 with that precious vessel 
 that carried you
 through this life,
 but cannot carry you
 into the next.

And may we who loved you,
 holding the song, blood and bone vessel of your being,
 may we carry the meaning 
 of your life forward
 into the world of light,
 so that it will reach
 those who come after.

 He waka herehere ngā waka.

The vessel that binds us

to the great moving fleet.

We know that it’s your time to depart,
 to embark on an ancient route of return,
 along the terrestrial contours of this land
 that has birthed and fed you,
 this land on which we stand,
 towards a celestial flight-path 

beyond the wingspan of birds,
 into the stars, 

towards the warmer weather of our dreams,
 towards islands we have held gently in our memories,
 where we once belonged.

At Te Rerenga Wairua, 
 where two oceans meet,
 a pōhutukawa tree still holds,

waiting for you
 with a fragrant, green-leaved, 
 red-crowned,
 farewell.
 

The whole earth heaves
 a sigh of release.

And from here,
 wreathed in red and green, 
 you will bid us farewell
 and begin to travel the ocean roads.
 The sea path traced by star walkers,
 past Tongatapu, to ‘Uvea and Futuna,
 where with the splitting of rocks, it all began.
 
You will enter the deep, blue channels 
 of ocean and night
 and move between worlds
 of underwater darkness and celestial light.

You will take flight.
 
Until you reach Savai’i
 and follow the black lava fields
 towards the last rites.
 

Here, you will be cleansed 
 in the waters of Falealupo.

The final farewell at the seashore.
 It is here we face that truth,
 that you are westward-bound.
 Ia Manuia Lou Malaga.
 Blessed be your journey.
 Follow the shining trail 
 of the setting sun 
 towards the great mystery
 beyond all of our knowing.
 We must trust then, 
 in all we cannot understand,
 and like the land,
 heave a heavy sigh of release.

O le mavaega nai le tai e fetaia'i i i'u a gafa. 

The farewell at the seashore, 
 with the promise 
 to meet again in the children.