NaPoMo NZ Day 11 - food is life

[Todd]

It Started and Ended With Hokey Pokey

The sun was a spark
and the sky a young lover
pressed close to the ground.
Trees hobbled about like old men
bent below their full height, 
as what would be
sprang up from what was.
The tui would walk with the bees
in those days, both unable
to spread their wings.
Every flower was also flat
on the ground like a painting
you would step across.

Now, the bees would gather nectar
to make their honey, but
there was no place in the world
taller than a man hunched
beneath a heavy load.
So, what the bees gathered
the tui eat. So, work was futility.

This was the age of the stomach.
Ages came and ages passed,
spring blossomed and died,
and the world chilled.

The sky looked for other lovers.
The trees could now stand
taller than a man. The first
mountains raised their white heads.

Finally, the bees unfolded their wings
and arched toward the sun,
but their joy darkened like a storm
as the tui also took flight.

For days the tui pursued
from water to forest
to finally the frozen mountains.
The bees dove into a drift,
and packed their nectar
beneath the snow for the people
of the land to find.