sonnet to our world

to feel alive in the wild wind and rain

to watch the kāhu soar, swoop on its prey

to be drawn to the delicate mauve array

of oxalis flowers, the yellow constellation

of dandelions that fleck the grassy berm

to have sandy feet and a sunburnt nose

to lug a pack with friends through bush for hours

then crowd round the smoky stove at tea time

can so much splendour, vitality and grit

in cycles from gleaming green chrysalis

to twitchy flight of bright powder-scale wings

survive the twin sins of greed and neglect

for our love so long so crude and faithless

secures us a future of extinctions