bmp 36 Baninnur: A Basket of Food

porirua market with susanna and jessie, 2009

too early in the morning for jessie

but she manages to smile

we go to market in porirua

to bring kanaky closer

susanna loves the polynesian music and the bustling brown

breakfast is donuts from patelisio’s stand—five for a dollar

we get tea, milo, coffee from the māori guy selling his boil-up

beef on sticks from a malaysian stall

we sit, eat, sigh in unison

noa and jessie giggle at a street preacher—thin young pālagi man

susanna recounts emails recently received

a nephew has died

he had taught her how to plant yams

had given her hope for the next crop—next generation

let’s try a rhizome theory of revolution:

tuaine asks “what are you doing here?”

and i say “this is home”

at porirua market we buy vegetables and fruit, fish, flowers

yes, cash passes from hand to hand

and we do drive back to wellington

but this is a kind of pilgrimage

and we show devotion to the

shouldertoshoulderbustlingbrown and theblareofzipso

that can bring kanaky closer

past struggles worth each bead of brine each bloody tear

because here you can meet bernard narokobi

who wrote his country’s constitution

and is as humble now as he was when he wrote it

so we think of yams even as we purchase red potatoes

for this rhizome theory of a revolution that will not be commodified

but humanized and realized in the next crop—next generation

jessie and noa giggle

their mothers smile

not too early: on time

a trip to market with margaret, 2007

(buaniviti)

it’s a bit of a

conceit, buying ourselves leis,

but who could resist?

(chillies)

the red heaps call me

i am drawn to their fire

i long for their burn

(nama)

o, give me these grapes

any day! i prefer salt

to sweets on the vine

(vasua)

lips, gonads and a

heart: we take cruel pleasure

in delicacy

(cawaki)

dad says, looks like poo!

i say, it tastes like heaven,

so just close your eyes.

(manā)

mud crabs don’t taste like

their name: hard shells hide sweet flesh,

market women know.

(oops!)

i have to confess

i prefer palusami

the samoan way

(kakana dina)

wow! taro, uvi,

cassava, already cooked

and sold by the bag!

(bila and vutu)

secret recipe

for happiness: roast vutu

and eat with bila.

(ivi)

the trick is to buy

them before they get slimy;

eat slow, prevent farts.

(sila)

steamed and roasted so

well, husks yellow and peal easy:

for golden kernels.

(on the list)

margaret buys veggies,

fruit: two sticks celery, beans,

bananas, melon.

(grapes)

muslim woman sells

chilled grapes imported from the

states. taste it, she says.

(maths)

chinese vendor’s son,

class 3 this year, calculates

his future with crops.

(barrow boys)

nemani is twelve,

starts at waidina this year.

barrow helps with fees

(sivaro)

i wanted to know

what it was. asked nemani.

passing boy answered.

(vakalolo)

plastic replaces

banana leaves, but not my

affection for you.

(paidar)

market taxis don’t

like women who live in town:

no short runs. we walk.