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Sport 43: 2015
Gem Wilder — Unfurled
page 178
Gem Wilder
Unfurled
Hillsy found a kurï skin,
tightly rolled and brittle,
in the basement of a Wanganui museum
back before the h was returned.
He built it an acid-free kennel,
put in a saucer of distilled water
that he kept topped up
as if the dog could lap at it,
and waited,
as patient as the kurï itself,
standing on the prow of a waka
on that long journey,
a living figurehead,
anticipating landfall
when it would finally have
enough space to unfurl.