NaPoMo NZ Day 11 - food is life

[Keith]

The far north settlements

The tide offered up a piece
of dark wet beech hand-carved
it rolled compass like, to my feet.
Once touched I feared its power.

I could only hold it for a few moments
knowing it was deciding if should pass
me its mana or release me to sickness.
It's tapu had been imbued by Tangaroa.

Compressed at the bottom of every ocean
the carving had swallowed sunless lifetimes
taken from dead sailors dragged by the currents,
I kept it in a bedside drawer.

The night Tommy became ill I woke
seconds before his scream,
the fever had set his head on fire
flames spat embers from his eyes,
he looked through me into another world.

He was leaving, I asked Tane not to take
my son but he only crackled of insanity.
I asked, begged Tangaroa to help me.
The bed side table splintered into pieces,
releasing my figurine.

I held it to Tommy's brow and for the moment
it takes an eye to blink I heard the sound
of nesting gulls, just before the wave broke
across his bedroom, washing away his fire.