You would not like the beach today.
You would not like me today.
We are both battered and unclean
from the storm.
I want to seek you out
so you can hold me
like you did once.
But you are too far
and we, too, are distant.

I need your touch, your security.
But that is like building
a castle in quick-sand.
So I am alone - again.
You would not like the beach today.
Beneath the thundering waves
the taniwha are weeping.
You would not like me today.

A good trick -
not sly
but always beats me,
the forgiving and trusting.
A bad trick
with a believer.

See,
there is an angel face
and there is an ice face.
The ice face is cruel and angry,
but his angel face
is soft and safe -
leans into me, and I am
mother and lover.