Live Encounters Aotearoa New Zealand Poets & Writers March 2026
Prayer for the shower, poems by Montana Sefilino.
Prayer for the shower
Coming in from the heat,
I exhaled into the quiet walls,
the day hanging heavy on my shoulders,
its weight settling into my bones,
my feet, leaden as wet sand.
The shower walls held me,
a bed I could lean my tired body against;
and it asked for nothing.
I slipped beneath the water’s curtain,
Silver rain fell
like prayer onto my skin,
baptizing,
hugging,
kissing
washing
the world away.
A different kind of heat wrapped around me,
a forgiving cloak.
My body drew in breath,
deep and aching and
unfinished thoughts, weary words
dissolved in the foam. Steam
pulled me home,
my shoulders dropped
my breath slowed,
warm water unknotted
my muscles and bone.
I closed my eyes
and sang praise
to the warm water.
You are Home
Who Am I?
you want to know who I am?
I am the hopes and the sacrifices
of my parents, I am the child’s
pocketed one dollar coin, no
silver spoon, only bare
hands
I smell of koko samoa,
taste like umu on Sunday
fresh baked bananas and palusami,
warm, grounding, alive.
I was not born into silence, I am
unnoticed, I grew like moss on stone,
green as seaweed, stinging
like a centipede, of the same earth
that bears this island,
where the ocean sings without words
and the wind knows my name.
I am a hibiscus in full bloom
barefoot in grass, valiant
and unbent,
my worth is not counted in dollars.
it is carried in breath and skeleton,
in prayers answered forward.
I am —
palm leaves whispering at dawn,
chickens crowing sharp and early,
ancestors leaning close to see
what they could not finish.
when I look in the mirror
through unborrowed eyes,
the land looks back and says:
You are home.
Mercies
clean sheets | cool against bare feet | rain tapping on the window | a soft lavalava wrapping around your waist | someone saving you a seat | a child’s laughter blooming in the hallway | an inside joke lining your chest in gold | frangipani scents slipping through the doorway
you are believed, you are held in his eyes | you are forgiven, you let the weight slip away
turning the page | finishing a task | slow mornings easing into the day | sleep curling around you | candles smouldering in quiet corners | handwritten notes feeling like hugs | your lover saying take your time
mama’s flounder swimming in coconut cream | my parents hugsandkisses, their warm, silent language | the smell of freshly baked taro| a compliment from a stranger | the cool breeze brushing your skin on a hot day |coconut buns puffing up proud, sweet and golden | sunlight warming your face after a squall
moonlight over the lagoon | writing your thoughts | a bath melting tension like honey |someone holding the door for you | Tiresa remembering your birthday | sitting barefoot on warm sand
getting through a hard day | you made it
and all of it
these tiny mercies| carry you forward |one step at a time
© Montana Sefilino
Montana Sefilino is a Samoan poet based in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the author of Crossing, her debut poetry collection, released in August 2024. Her work explores themes of nature, healing, self-love, motherhood, faith, culture, migration, and identity.