io kerekere

This year the company I work for celebrated its fifth birthday by taking us all to Fiji for a conference/holiday. It was my first trip to Fiji; my first trip to anywhere besides Aotearoa or Australia. The people of Fiji are beautiful and the land is dramatic and bright. What a treat.

FIJI: MARGIN NOTES

1 – SUPERIOR ROOM
No sheets
No sleep
No dreams / oceanic
All rumpled / Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
All restless / volcanic sand
All dark / fire dancers scorch shore

All new / io kerekere / yes please

2 – RESORT BUFFET BREAKFAST
lotus in the water / gardens / creeks
fish in the lotus
clouds of their children are surface ripples
/ melon / bite / smile / snap
fish frighten inside my hand gestures
a bird laughs
a fallen frangipani floor

3 – CONFERENCE
floating lotus rivers trail through my mind
the air-conditioning hum stomps
all over the serenity
acclimatise? not allowed
the carpet is a lagoon made of luxury
what are these fish in the sofitel creeks called?
my mind swims with them
and as the business chat buds
the pen calls the page
and my hand obeys
outside through the windows I can’t see
the sea the sea the sea
eyes strain out as ears point in
it is blue to eternity
tonight I will worship the stars
listen to the sea
a half-moon will watch over us all
maybe we’ll sing to each other
and think of our pakake
while our toes keep us in the sand

artificial intelligence hovers here
like a stink I can’t place
and maybe it’ll bloom into
perfume but right now
I scrunch my nose as a reflex
people’s trust is assigned so
whimsically / arbitrarily
I’m not a luddite
I’m a suspicious socialist
cynical of capitalist wonders
AI is using all the water
all the power
how much energy can we waste?
as if there’s more

4 – SUMMARY

the fallen frangipani
a bird laughs