Eartha Davis

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màthair beinne

I.
It is said,
gently,
that body
tucks herself
under spirit’s
awning / thrums like
heart water, clayed
knowing / an ontology

of undressed eyelids / & its
said, softly,
that body
constellates / fruits
into animal,
a rivered
touching / holds
her mother’s hand
like
rain

II.
Body worships
the soul of
a bird / dreams herself
into winter / sleeps
on wombed
breathing, the arc
of distancing / body
remembers / her heart
goes with you / her heart
goes with
river

III.
Flesh
nurses pulse
in a valley of
music / migrates for 
mountain / migrates
into mountain / how
mountain, as
mother, melts
slow / how
mountain, as
mother, is palmed with
warming / holds
her daughter’s hand
like
rain

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Eartha Davis

Eartha is a woman of Ngāpuhi heritage living on Wurundjeri land. She placed second in the 2022 Woorilla Poetry Prize Youth Section, was nominated for The Best of the Net Award in 2023, and was shortlisted for the 2024 Creative Writing New Zealand’s Short Story Prize. Her work is published or forthcoming in the Australian Poetry Anthology, Cordite, Rabbit, Wildness, takahē, Minarets, Circular Publishing, Frozen Sea, Baby Teeth Journal, South Florida Poetry Journal, Revolute, Sunday Mornings at the River, Arboreal Magazine, JMWW, LEON Literary Review, and ELJ Editions, among others. She is currently working with Red Room Poetry on their POEM FOREST project.