FWD: photograph from the birthday

Sweet menagerie, remember? Taupe recliner

met butterball bairn and rosy cheek >>> LOOK

She’s still nursing. The thread fades. But I see

her silver gossamer and grey fibres frayed

One hundred times more baby than a chubby

toddler. Born there orbital, in the chenille settee

Scraped in hair spray across the dog-ear tiles

for scattered walnuts and birthday frosting.

Unspeckled by a decade of rain the graceful

coryphée has the spoons to shove a slice

In her mouth and hum. A drunk ceiling eye roll

forgets maroon aprons that pull at her strings;

Ossein army of elasticated waists; the nautilus

of petalled skin and violet fleece cut pile first

Floating heavenward in ultra-vibrant stripes

then breaking down for dust mites to feed

The residents. And I thrusting the baby forward

caught the gesture for life: Pearly hollow tines

Slick with cream-cheese cartilage, panel heater

bunting, starched doilies to mark a century of

Sandy tots and daffodil postcards at sea

in the springs of her well seasoned arm chair.

Miriama Gemmell

Miriama (Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Rakaipaaka) recently returned to the home fires of Aotearoa for the comedy duet of decolonisation and motherhood. When she is not studying Te Reo, Miriama can be found drawing rainbows in street chalk with her toddler.