Cherie Barford
Cherie Barford was born in 1960 to a German-Samoan mother and a Palagi father. She grew up in West Auckland in the days when Te Atatu Peninsula had gravel roads, rabbits running over farmland and a working class community. She is an ex-school teacher and currently holds the position of Coordinator for the Waitakere Adult Literacy Centre in Henderson Valley. Most recently published in Snorkel, Fugacity, Trout 12 and Whetu Moana, Cherie performs poetry with enthusiasm here and there, from time to time.
kawakawa (the pepper tree)
kawakawa
aka the pepper tree
favours the coast
its heart-shaped leaves
excite our
salivary glands
and when wilted
over a fire
release oil
for the tending
of boils and gonorrhoea
the scent
in steamy baths
is an aphrodisiac
(some say)
the plant mimics
a hormone
juvenile insects
can’t resist
they flock to it
munch holes
through branches
of swaying green hearts
creating a new garden
I
there’s nothing much left
of the beauchamp garden
katherine’s sister tended
in the cotswolds
the hellebore collection
the cherry trees
that once filled baskets
are gone
there’s just a bed
of lilies-of-the-valley
beneath a shed
and a red peony
seeding itself
in glebe fields
creating a new garden
II
in my new garden
children paint immortals
sliced from plastic sprue
with a modeling knife
goblin-green
mithridatic-silver
bad-moon-yellow
their brushes sucked
to a spittle-lacquered point
nudging high-elf bowmen
from chariots to storm citadels
almost lost in the grass
threatening to dwarf
the twirling clothes line
a centre point
for banana and nikau palms
tongan taro
with elegant black stems
fijian hibiscus
bold enough to catch eyes
and a yellow
chinese lantern
planted for light
