New Zealand poet laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh marks the very fine and wonderful occasion of the birth of a daughter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford.

Jacinda and Clarke and the Baby and Us: A Rondeau

The baby’s here, the baby’s here!

Aotearoa, New Zealand, what a year!

Jacinda, our partnered and pregnant world first

Has, this 125 Suffrage year, given birth

To a wee girl so dear

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Women are extending the frontier

In Census 2018 let’s be clear

And count the ways women in the stats have reversed

The baby’s here, the baby’s here!

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Patsy, our Governor General is near

Sian’s our Chief Justice, Lianne’s Christchurch Mayor

Jenny and Carmel for Labour (but Winnie came first)

Marama co-leading Greens, another burst

But the real labour has happened, let’s be clear:

The baby’s here, the baby’s here!

By Selina Tusitala Marsh, June 21, 2018

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