Heart Stains Are Forever Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Longing for landfall, the albatross
Sought the twin sisters of the waves
Mist of the Breaking Surf
And Voice of the Breaking Surf.

So the young warrior Rautoroa
Courted Rehutai and Tangimoana
Bringing gifts to their chieftain father,
Hoping to take away a bride

But both of the girls fell in love
With the bold and handsome youth
So that neither would leave him
Alone with the other.

Seeking to choose between them
The young man asked for water
And Tangimoana hurried to the stream
To fill a gourd so that he could drink.

But Rehutai lingered, at last alone
With the man she fallen in love with,
Until he said again in anger:
Woman fetch me water.

But Tangimoana on filling her gourd
Muddied the stream so that
When her sister came to its edge
She had to wait for it to clear.

And on returning Rehutai found
Her sister wearing the warrior's cloak
With his raukura feather in her headband
Signifying that they were betrothed.

At this the bereft girl rose with the mist
Living thenceforth a desolate life
On the hill of the lonely one,
Ohine-mokemoke Rehutai.

Rehutai's Lament

I toss like the waves
Moaning with loss
Turning restlessly
Alone on my sleeping mat.

A young girl dreaming
That he would choose and love me -
But only starlight lingers
Now night has overtaken day.

The dark stains of peat
From the marshland
Are washed by the stream
But heart stains are forever