Tangaroa's Letters

Shared with dVerse Open Link Night #411

Tangaroa's Letters

New Zealand's two islands
lifted from the deep.
Waves became syllables
spoken by Tangaroa,
god of the sea, rivers, and lakes.

He sang the ocean into being,
his voice a soothing susurration,
a song woven through shadowed skies,
drawn gently over our heads.

Grains of sand rode the breeze,
carrying stories of the sea.
We taste the salt upon our lips.
We inhale the life force gifted to us,
oxygen rising from its lungs,
even as they struggle,
as the water warms
and the god's chest tightens.

We gather broken shells,
fragments of Tangaroa's letters,
and open ourselves to the sky,
where the moon listens like an elder
who remembers the time
when the sea held
hope, hunger, fish,
and the ancient agreements
between humans and the tide.

Once we lived in harmony
with the ocean's heartbeat.
Let its droplets fall upon our skin
from the pockets of its robe.
Let the seagulls cry
their fierce messages of love.
Feel the warning
before they retreat
into the hush
that follows prophecy.