10th March

For my family, on the 
third anniversary of my father’s death

The sky is still here
And I no longer have to hold it in place
It’s grey today
A good day for fishing
I remember you always used to fish
in the rain in your worn brown
oilskin coat
Motoring out in the little aluminium
dinghy at dawn to get the best fish
Sometimes with me, or my brother Steve
bundled into the boat
Snapper, gurnard, kahawai
They would rise to the surface in the
early morning,
mouths open to the rain.

Kiri Piahana-Wong

Kiri Piahana-Wong is a poet, editor and the publisher at Anahera Press. She is of Ngāti Ranginui, Chinese and Pākehā (English) ancestry. As a poet, Kiri’s writing has appeared in over forty journals and anthologies, including Essential NZ Poems, Landfall, Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation, Ora Nui, Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana and more. She has one full-length collection, Night Swimming (2013), and a second, Give Me An Ordinary Day, is forthcoming.