Midden Secrets
I
In the heart of Lapaha
pigs graze
on the remains
of our ancestors
bereft of status
not worthy
of a Langi
their sorrows feed
the puaka’s
gut.
II
While at the road juncture
a collarbone juts out
defiantly. in. protest
searching
for its skull
long since crushed
by a China-loan
bulldozer
on its way to the Nopele’s
quarry.
III
Remembered, dismembered
midden secrets
buried deep below
talo
roots that
trace
seismic
fault-lines
all the way back to
Taiwan.
In search of Dr Funk
slowly we climb
Lanoto’o, hung-over
and haunted by deeds
best forgotten
peering through shrouded
mist, a broken telco
tower observes
our passing
at the summit we part ways
with innocence, and bear
witness to Apia’s
past, preserved
under brush and coconut
frond we search, but the 1911
granite slab is nowhere
to be found
silently watching us, the dead
lake gleams with it’s hidden
secret tucked away safely
within the memory
of it’s contraband
goldfish, their bulging eyes peeping
up at us from the depths of the
bottomless abyss
an immortal testament to Solf’s
nemisis, the long-dead German
doctor survived only by tantalizing
teuila, reincarnated as a bush
knife wielding boy wide-eyed
girl in tow, walking
the cusp of history untold
to pay homage
to lives well
lived and
deeds best
forgotten
Leilani Tamu is a Polynesian poet, who has recently moved back to New Zealand after three years of working as a NZ diplomat in Tonga and Australia. Her work has featured in a number of publications including: Niu Voices: Contemporary Pacific Fiction 1; Mauri Ola: Polynesian Poetry in English; Landfall 218 (islands) and JAAM 29. With support from Creative New Zealand and the NZ Society of Authors she is currently in the process of completing her first book of poetry Paradise : Pasifika.
