white-flowering mānuka and pōhutukawa

she wakes and memory paints the scene 
appearing before her    flying to and through the gap 
top left where headland and bay and wheeling birds 
locate us exactly and there is no holding 
particulars that rush    against the light against 
spectral decoupage    the day we were there 

a branch reaches upwards almost to top centre 

there will be twelve and they will go 
out in the world    each with a wooden bowl 
and saffron robes    mendicants of apparent magnitude 
looking for dream openings    those gaps 
between worlds    where two people make love 
the condition of their continuing existence 

scarlet flowers and leaves with silvery undersides  

the scene shifts    tītoki berries and white convolvulus 
ramble in front of an inlet    white detailing 
on clouds and ocean waves    fringed by hanging ferns 
that make another contre-jour    to peer through 
perihelion she says    and he is lost 
on the far side of the vertical line that parts them 

at right a sprig of mānuka covered in small white flowers  

river valley and hills    fern and willow and a stretch of water 
flax and hills behind    an argument of stunning persuasion 
for being in two places at once    foreground 
and background     here and there 
rocky valley floor and hillsides    and a rosy sky 
camping in the mountains    tent and billy but no figures 

white blossoms among red and two trees on sloping ground 

many of the twelve have disappeared 
gone with their stories to places beyond 
the reach of mortal eyes    we could guess 
at inset scenes for supplejack and more convolvulus 
for bush lawyer with white trumpets buds and half-open flowers 
mean anomaly of her twining imagination 
or dream state that links her to us    and to him 

pale sky white clouds and seven seagulls flying in the distance 

the Terranora makes her way into the inlet 
Robin Hood Bay to her left    Port Underwood ahead 
moving slowly across calm waters 
she was too young to remember it then    brings it back now 
years of visual electricity    birds wheeling overhead 
the mānuka in blossom    the impossible pōhutukawa

michele leggott