Sometimes a tree grows inside you

while oystercatchers call from the shore
and red-billed gulls paddle for worms in the mudflats

sometimes a tree comes in through your eyes, ears or fingertips
and settles in your bones

perhaps a pōhutukawa, bent, knotted, lovely
low branches bathing in a gentle tide

it comes to live in you
finding its place in some quiet corner 

and when the bustle is too much 
or the sky too dark

you can go there, you can sit with your tree
breathing together while the sea laps your roots

singing with the riroriro
savouring the wind

Janis Freegard

Janis Freegard (she/her) is the author of several poetry collections, including Reading the Signs (The Cuba Press). Her short story collection, Wild, Wild Women was published recently by At the Bay | I Te Kokoru after winning their short story manuscript competition. Born in South Shields, England, she grew up in the UK, South Africa, Australia and Aotearoa, and has lived in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington most of her life. Website