Pikitia for Sad Tamariki


This poem was originally published in takahē 104.


Get in loser! 
We’re consulting the dictionary. 
Nah, the app, obviously. 
Kua rite? 

Taka: 
(verb) to be completely encircled, to move about, to develop 

Tāpui: 
(noun) mark to indicate a claim or right to property (verb) (-a,-tia) to set aside, reserve, book, earmark 

Takatāpui: 
(noun) lesbian, gay, homosexual, gay men and women 

He takatāpui ahau. 
I claim my right to develop, 
to move freely, 
to be completely encircled 
by aroha and community. 

I will no longer set 
this part of myself aside, 
like a placecard at a 
formal dinner table. 
I am the unexpected music 
of the humble water glass. 

Leave the cis-hets to their 
matching pajamas and mass 
produced holiday cards, their 
op-eds about the resentments 
and third shifts of wives everywhere. 

Just so you know: 
I wouldn’t deadname a Charizard 
But I would steal a car.

Featured photo by Neal E. Johnson on Unsplash.


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