Freyja					
for Robert Sullivan

My people’s fierceness is noted in poetry and prose.
When I approach your ship, I steer a position to my favour, furl
my sail. My mast is un-stepped before I tether my vessel to yours 
so that we become two islands made one. 

Do not try to hurl
yourself overboard, there are smaller boats
waiting to pick you off as if a louse from my long
hair. Water surrounds us like greenstone at our throats.

Now, having taken care not to damage one-
another’s transport – it is worth more for future raids intact – 
we are engaged
as equals in hand-to-hand combat.

I am a Viking. But do not be outraged, when I abort, no one will have died;
I am the goddess of peace, and you will have enjoyed the fucking ride.

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Rachel J Fenton is a working-class poet living in Te Waipounamu, Aotearoa. Her poetry has appeared in English, The Rialto, Magma, Landfall, Overland Journal, and her chapbook Beerstorming with Charlotte Bronte in New York is published by Ethel Press.

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