Tayi Tibble

Assimilation

they consider
themselves to be
a modern couple

they take turns

giving
and receiving
oral

they split the bills
evenly and they share
the chores but

when he brings in 
the washing
he leaves the pegs
all over the ground

he doesn't bother to
pick them up
and put them back
into the basket

and she considers this to be
culturally insensitive

and as progressive 
as they are
she can't help

but think about 
potatoes and muskets
disease-ridden blankets
surveyors and preachers

and how many Māori girls 
ended up on their knees
in order to erect
this modern nation

she sighs
and rolls her eyes
like a tiny haka

as she pulls the last
remaining peg embedded
in the mud with the last
of her mana

she could either lick them clean
with the sponge of her tongue

or

plunge them back into the earth's 
dark wet cunt. Let her husband pick them up.