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a decade out of date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