Live Encounters Aotearoa New Zealand Poets & Writers March 2026
Mama-War, poem by Edna Heled.
Mama-War
A female wolf
with multiple teats
breastfeeding myriad babies
fostering infants with sweet maternal juice
saturated with righteousness
splattered with sprinkles of
courage and bravery
a ravenous
wolf
nourished
by eager sucks
of tender newborn lips
to produce eternal springs of tar-milk
granting permission to horror
commanding the halos
enhancing fortitude
promises
that every war-murderer
each man who marches to battle
to prowl for enemies with prey-seeking jaws
to sow terror in cold blood to kill the other
to make a stranger unknown woman
a grieving bereaved mother
will forever remain
The Heroic Son
apple of his
mother’s
eye
© Edna Heled
Edna Heled is an artist, art therapist, counsellor and travel journalist living in Auckland. She studied Film & TV, Visual Arts, Art Therapy (MA) and Psychology (BA Hons). In the last ten years she has been writing in different forms including short stories, poetry, flash, travel articles and non-fiction. She is published in NZ, Australia, USA, UK and more.