The Friday Poem: ‘Crocodile’ by Ariana Tikao
A new poem by Ariana Tikao
Crocodile
she resented being the crocodile
in the moat, never the princess
due (e ai ki ōna hoa) to her dark green dress
with matching tie attached
worn in winter, an
embarrassing hand-me-down
from her older cousin
as the youngest of
seven children
she got used to being
a decade out of date
but now with a slight tilt
of the frame
she sees herself
as a green-skinned
moko’ed up taniwha
wet with wai māori
resurgence now filling
up that moat in the
asphalt playground
of spreydon school
fifty metres from the
ōpāwaho river –
that taniwha
can either be a guarding
force, a kaitiaki
or, the opposite
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The Friday Poem is edited by Hera Lindsay Bird. Submissions are currently closed.
Ariana Tikao
Ariana Tikao (she/her/ia) is a Kāi Tahu writer, māmā, curator, and taoka puoro musician from Ōtautahi whose work explores themes of identity, ancestral stories, and mana wahine. She was awarded as an Arts Laureate in 2020. Her writing has appeared in Takahē, Turbine, Kapohau, Tupuranga, Swamp, and Landfall. Ariana has co-written two books: Mokorua: My Story of Moko Kauae and Te Rā: The Māori Sail. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the IIML at Te Herenga Waka. In 2023 she was an Ursula Bethell writer in residence at the University of Canterbury, where she worked on her debut poetry collection Pepeha Portal, that will be published by Otago University Press in 2026.
