Taonga

By Kit Willett

I bow, and she places around my neck 
pounamu in the shape of a toki. 
She says, this is who you are now: 
I see your courage in its sharpened edge, 

your nuance in its varied tone, 
your humour in its speckling, 
your bite in its kawakawa shade,
your voice in its silky grain.

I see veins that look like gold
and seem to shine in the light.
The weight hangs over my heart.

Her eyes soften to a close,
and her hand squeezes my shoulder
in a firm and constant benediction.

Kit Willett (he/him is a bisexual poet, English teacher, and executive editor of the Aotearoa poetry journal Tarot. His debut poetry collection, Dying of the Light, was published by Wipf and Stock in 2022.