Maui and the giant fish

                           

Mahuika was a woman storyteller in a Maori village about the time that Britain was trying to colonise Aoteraroa (New Zealand) in early 1800's This is one of her stories she gave to the village children. It is part a long series of about a number of characters I created in the village!

Maui had aquired the jawbone of his grandmother and he fashioned fishhooks out of the bone. He often went fishing with his brothers but this time he let them fish in the their own way but they were out of luck. After some hours the brothers had hardly caught enough for one person to eat let alone all of their families. They turned to Maui and called out "Why do you not help as well Maui?"

Maui shrugged but bent down and picked up a line and fastened one of his bone hooks on. Then suprised them all by striking himself on the nose causing it to bleed, He staunched the bleeding with some flax fronds and threaded these on to his hook then threw it in the water. He played out his line and sat waiting giving it a gentle tug now and then. Thinking that a fish was now on the hook he tugged it hard and felt the resistance. So he gradually pulled in the line which took enormous effort and violently rocked their canoe. Maui wouldn't give up but fought and played his catch for hours until they all could see he had snared a giant fish called Hahau-Whenu. 

The fish was so big it was like another land. There were fires burning and strange creatures walking on its back. As Maui's brothers started to bring it alongside it began to struggle. All the rest of the day the brothers tried to land the fish which thrashed back and forth altering its shape and became folded and wrinkly. It was so large that a new land was created to the north of their own island. The land that was created from this fish is now known as Te Ika-a-Maui or the fish of Maui, and it is covered with mountains and valleys. The belly of the giant fish as it transformed into land grumbled and rumbled and formed volcanoes. These mountains are the Taupo and Tongariro mountains which still grumble today telling us that it is not happy as it preferred living in the ocean.

Word count 361

Illustration found of  the Tongariro mountains at www.traveldig.com

I feel like hell

Fingers ache and feet are so numb

The cold has cut me to the bone

Age doesn't treat me very well

To tell the truth I feel like hell

I've crossed bridge of no turning back

Shadows age, makes memory lack

Those days of recalling things have gone

My brain sadly has been outshone

Water under bridge gone for me

My sculpted figure at streams edge

Fount of knowledge passes me by

Try to think of would but they deny

Soon my body will be cinders

My friends have grace to say farewell

Framed pictures say who I was

I can't see them that is because...

Image found at www.shutterstock.com

The foundation of my belief

 I can't believe how lucky I was

To be brought up many years ago

Being taught the right way to go

T'was the foundation of my belief

Short or tall the color of my hair

Of of my skin was no need to care

For difference mattered not back then

Now I was wahite and had brown hair

But my cousin Jan was really fair

Then the girl I danced with long ago

Was a Kiwi who shook her long locks

Black as a berry just like my socks

Have lived in Downunder many years

Our country is multicultural 

As well as being quite liberal

The best place to live ones life

Keeping warm because of the heat

Having no close neighbours can't be beat

Image found at www.pixabay.com

The Runaway

 

Paul was seventeen. He hitched highway 1 from Melbourne to Adelaide. The first lift got him to Horsham, the next to South Australia’s border at Bordertown. The last leg got him to an outer suburb with directions to walk to the city which he could see in the distance. It looked magnificent with the high rise buildings standing tall and the line of the sea stretching away in the distance. Everything was so bright and clean and green. Every street was lined with trees. Even the Jacarandas were in blossom.

Now less than two weeks later after sleeping down by the River Torrens or in the parklands that circled the city he was finally in a bed again! And clean!

He looked up at the paint flaking from the ceiling. The dog which had chosen to sleep in his room made snuffling noises in his sleep and he could hear Maisie fiddling about in the kitchen.

Her cooking was a bit basic, the house certainly needed a tidy up but for once in his life he felt relaxed. He went through his possessions again. His Mum’s new boyfriend; the indifference of his sisters who were too young to understand what had happened and the fact that their useless father had disappeared who knows where. He couldn’t live there anymore so decided on a break.. He left his family in Melbourne and headed not to Sydney but to Adelaide. He had never talked about Adelaide. He chose this city because his teacher at school Megan Watts said she came from there. She was the one person that talked to him and encouraged him to do what he wanted in life and felt a bond with her.

 “I’ll give Maisie $50 to start”.

“I’ll never go back, not in a thousand years” he murmured. He got up, went to the door and switched the light off then felt his way back to bed. Even Maisie was quiet now and night fell on the household.     (331 words)

Changing the bucket

 

Living in my retirement now

In apartment no place to go

Takes me back to days of gardens green

Filled with bright flowers and growing beans

Fruit trees with apples crisp and red

But being a lad ealy to bed

Large kitrchen to cook and eat meals

Smell of cinnamon quite appeals

Mum wielding knife with expertise

As she rolls pastry strips with such ease

We try in turns to copy her

They're oven bound doesn't worry her

"We'll go for a short walk" she says

We're getting a visit from Les

For the nightsoil man comes every week

She needs to escape from that reek

So off we go as he arrives

Thank goodness for she'd saved our lives

We cover our noses as he did start

Oven cares for tarts

We walk to woods picking flowers

Watching squirrels, making bowers

"Time now" says Mum "To check our tart"

He's gone" meaning the nightsoil cart

Image found at www.pixabay.com

Screams for food

That's the trouble with children

Whining all the time for food

Parents oft have feel of regret

When they decide to have a brood

Dads have so little care to give

Merely looking askance at his wife

As she feeds little one all day

See opposition to him in his life

Bedtime comes, now it all turns worse

No cuddles for him...baby's first

When bub's finally in his cot

Wife say for him she has no thirst

At last he whispers in her ear

when from baby there is no sound

But wife has drifted off to sleep

Sense of silence does abound

Baby though lasts but an hour or so

Faintest murmur now alerts wife

Dad wakes to find he's all alone

Must be quiet or he's in strife

Image forund at www.pixabay.com

Suddenly it's Summer

    

Suddenly it is now summer

My old mind takes me back again

Warm comforting days long ago

Clutching fingers on the sea shore

Feet paddling in the sea water

Now you're not with me anymore

You're sitting at the mirtrow

Where once you wore braids in your hair

Oh those early days were magic

Now criel time shifts endlessly on

For happiness is so short lived

You've gone, who knows where anymore

Or are you next to me in bed

Remember honeymoon years gone?

Walking Paris streets holding hands

Dining in cafes was always fun

Using Metro like we lived there

Then back to live evermore

We never took that easy line

Was not enough for you and I

So went "Down Under"  with the kids

Adventure setting up again

There we stayed fopr rest of our lives

With our family evermore

Our lives were never "must do that"

We travelled here and everywhere

Adventuring all over globe

Had itchy feet to see what was there

Now my days are coming to a close

I can't promise to write anymore

Image of River Torrens at Glenelg in South Australia

The story of the Kumara

Many years ago I wrote a number of stories in serial form about the early inhabitants of Pacific Islands before the white man came. Told by a woman storyteller Mahuika, this one is about the legends of why they should treat animals fairly.

Long ago a Maori man Pourangahua  sailed by boat to the land of Hawaiki, where his ancestors came from. There he visited friends and ate delicious kumara and stayed for many months for he was guest of the great chief named Raukapanga.

When it came time to return home, he asked Raukapanga if he could borrow two of his Toroa (or Albatross) that he kept as pets to help him take some kumara tubers home with him. Raukapanga was reluctant to loan his birds to Pourangahua because he loved them very much. Eventually he agreed but gave him instructions on how to care for them.

 

Pourangahua left with the birds carrying of kumara as a gift from the chief. The chief had explained to Pourangahua that once he reached the shore of his land Aotearoa, he would have to get off the bird and continue his journey on foot and carry the kumara himself. This is because the toroa much preferred flying over the sea as flying over the land would tire them out.

 

Pourangahua was lazy and made the birds fly all the way home over mountains and valleys to his village. They had to fly so far the bird that had carried him was very tired. When they finally were returned home the one who had had the most to carry flew slower than normal and was attacked and killed by a huge evil spirit. Luckily the other bird made it home safely, with tears rolling from his eyes as he lost his mate.

 

The Hawaiiki chief was furious when he learned about his pet birds and so he sent a plague of caterpillars to destroy the plants Pourangahua had planted from the kumara that he’d had as a gift; so Pourangahua gained nothing from his visit to Hawaiki.

 

Pourangahua knew the plague had been sent to destroy his crop because he’d done wrong, so he would never be able return to Hawaiki again for he’d surely be killed for his cruelty to the Toroa.

Word count 337

As the Stories were meant for children I normally gave an explanation by Mahika the storyteller what they should learn from the story. (Don't read if you are counting words!)

Mahuika said "Nowadays if you are lucky enough to see a toroa (albatross) up close you will see that it still sheds tears every time it eats food as it remembers its mate so now they keep their distance from man. They do not trust us anymore.”

The children all looked back up the in the sky searching for a long time to see if the birds were still there but by now they had gone.

She looked at me

 

She looked at me a bit doubtfully

Just what does she expect of me

We are all brought up differently

She was probably never hungry

While I sometimes ate slice of stale bread

Or even pinched apple from a tree

That didn't even belong to me

And wore old trousers frayed at knee

My mother worked at shop in downtown

As war was on and wages low

Dad often worked and far to go

I walked to school in rain or no

I knew that her life was far better

She was luckly that's surely true

But no need to make me feel blue

Just trying to do what I can do

She looked at me now biting her lip

Was sorry now for what she said

"Sorry" she said shaking her head

For all the things I may have said

Curiously we dated after that

Wasn't long before our first kiss

Honest and true did nothing amiss

Years later we were married in bliss

My Mother and the sea

Mother had no faith in the sea. I found this out when we were at Littlehampton, boarding far from town and the sea. The beach was far from shops, ice-cream stalls and of course toilets!.

Father knew the beach on other side of the river so planned an expedition to escape the crowds so that picnics and bathing could be away from the crowds. All approved the plan and we found that we'd ferry acrosst. Us kids were keen and excited. The boatman, a gnarled weather beaten old salt doing job, smoking a pipe that sent out reeking clouds. I remember his hands and arms ends gripping the oars.

Panic on mother’s face was obvious as we clambered into the boat. The charge was one penny each and for this we crossed fast flowing River Arun. That was quite evident when the tide was out. When the tide was in the water was sluggish so rowing across to the other side was simple, much to the relief of mother. On opposite shore we had to trek over strange territory for a few minutes spending a day at the beach, bathing, eating and exploring.  Mother however merely sat down and had no dealing with the sea.

With food eaten, bodies tanned by the sun, tired out from running about and hungry again we walked back to the ferry. Large queues of customers now were there, crossings seem to take longer now tide was going out. That is not true it was racing out and the  ferries were making heavy weather of the trip. As we boarded the boatman with grim determination turned the craft and rowed with a steely face rowed upstream  painfully slowly. Only when the berth on the opposite side seemed totally out of reach did he swing the boat around and drift with the fast current. With ferry hopelessly out of control until some yards from the berth, he nudged the boat into waiting hands who quickly fastened it and unloaded passengers. We boys and Dad certainly had faith all would be well. Mother on the other hand did not open her eyes until she was helped out of the boat on the other side

Word Count 362

Image found at www.tripadvisor.com.

Kids and trains

 

Kids want to be train drivers 

Steaming through town and country

Black soot now wiped from their faces

Engine whistling on dark nights

Clatters through 'til break of day

Now crossing plains to the bay

Then as a youth I fancied painting

A career with brush in hand

Sketching nudes on my easel

With me daubing on the paint

To show work in gallery

With a names that's legendary

Perhaps I'll dance the tango

With maiden with raven hair

As others watch with envy

This cute professional pair

Bodies close and backs full sway

Dancing all the night away

But some choose to take up law

By proving that black is white

Forever telling their truth

To flatten the other side

Putting case in dustbin

Wanting nothing but to win

Image found at www.facebook.com

Lasting love

It is hard to wear a smile on your face when you are at work

Then your mind now brightens to bring you out of the days murk

For what joy as the clocks hands get to five at night

You jump in your car and join all the workers drive back home

Now with flowers for wife from lady with her curbside stall

Knowing that you will get a kiss from your loves at the door

As the kids come rushing out looking for candy or more

You wife has your slippers ready at your own arm chair

And what a sound of relief as the kids discover you there

Both son and daughter draw closer hoping to sit on your lap

Now doubt to tell you what they've been up to today at school  

As you see the marks from the teacher they have received

Then in comes the dog with woof and wag of his tail

Jealous of course with the kids as he utters a wail

Then finally everyone starts to settle down at last

As my wife finally calls us in for our repast

For nothing is quite like the joy of family life

With the lasting love and care we have for each other

How precious these years will seem when we are older

Teaching us to make the most of each and every day

We will smile and cherish these times when we are old and grey

My mermaid Marina

“Don’t come any closer” she said.

“Do you want me to help you down? I said, still averting my face.

“I am waiting for the tide to come in.”

“Isn’t it easier to get down when the tide is out?”

“No, I haven’t got legs like you.”

That was all I needed a disabled girl, abandoned on my beach with no clothes on.

“It’s alright I will help you down.”

“No you won’t human. I will wait for the tide. Now leave me alone.”

Human did she say?  Was she disabled and nutty too? I had to look at her.

I looked up and found a very beautiful but angry girl pouting at me with her tail dangling over the rock.

“What? Haven’t you seen a mermaid before?”

I shook my head and looked at her again. Her tail was smooth like a dolphin’s. Her coarse hair was like strands of seagrass. She blinked her eyes which I guessed were drying out and her breasts were just tiny mounds on her body.

“Finished looking?”

“Let me get you down, you are worried about drying out aren’t you?”

She looked at me differently and nodded. I reached up for her, she paused then put her arms round me while I held her bottom and lifted her down, carried her to a rock pool to sit in.

She immediately sighed with relief and splashed the water.

“Can you breathe both in and out the water?”

“Questions, questions?” she responded

“Why are you so angry with me?”

“I am not angry with you, I am pleased with you. I am angry with myself for making risky mistakes.”

“You’re not going back to sea straight away are you?”

She shook her head, “The sharks out are still out there.”

“How can you tell?”

“The sea is for those that can interpret other languages. That is why I can speak to you, crabs, birds and shellfish too. So there are sharks out there now OK?”

“What is your name? And how do you know that expression jungle telegraph?”

“Boy, do you need thelp. I can read your mind that’s why. Under the sea we don’t ask questions all the time, there is no need. That is why I know you are safe to be with, your wife is dead, you think I am beautiful and have small breasts.”

I laughed and nodded in agreement. “All what you said is true, but how about my name?”

“Not sure. I am going to call you Shark because I was frightened of you at first.”

“That’s close, it’s Mark. Then I will call you Marina unless you have another name?”

“I do, but you humans couldn’t pronounce it, so Marina is fine.“I’m off now, the sharks have gone". 

With that she swam off. I do hope I'll see her again.



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