Rain on Ouvea
I
before it rains the humid air freshens
teasing languid sheets hammock-
strung between leaning palms
their flowers baubles on spikes
the three-note bird can’t resist
II
when it rains the wind strengthens
driving droplets through shutters
with papillon de nuit
their ragged wings
desperate for shelter
but where to go?
the croissant-shaped island
pitter-patters all over
and outside the kitchen window
rivulets course papaya
dangling green and gold
III
after the rain turtles abandon trous
for the darkening open sea
and gregarious parakeets
strut beneath bougainvillea
the scarlet splashes above their beaks
as splendid as the dripping harlequin blooms
* Ouvea is one of the Loyalty Islands It gets its name from the Wallisian word uvea,
meaning ‘island far away’
* papillon de nuit – night butterflies i.e. moths
* trous – waterholes
What are ya?
the mixed-blood brood is getting restless
not truly this not truly that
we reconcile opposite tendencies
in the disquiet of no-man’s-land
frayed by the constant unraveling
of our features, notions and words
by the pedigree gate-keepers
who sort us out
taro or spud
for the gobbling
while we stagger about
the mother-axis twirling
between archipelagoes
the father-axis spinning
between hemispheres
Tele I’a Ole Sami
this fish is swimming upstream
and the woman on the phone
says she can change my ethnicity
with the click of her mouse
What are ya?
I’m a daughter of the universe
Can ya be more specific?
I’m Pasifika
That’s not a category
on the medical register
Let’s try ‘other’
Your doctor’s sorted you lot out
He’s ticked the Samoan box
for some of your family
European for the rest
The thing is I say
in my family we are brown
olive, freckled and white
from the same bed
Oh Right Well
We could tick two boxes
European and Samoan
Will that do?
I can live with that
Click your screen and save me!
*Tele I’a Ole Sami –There’s Plenty of Fish in the Sea – a song made famous by Bill Sevesi
Serie (Cherie) Barford was born in 1960 to a German-Samoan mother and a Palagi father. She grew up in West Auckland in the days when Te Atatu Peninsula had gravel roads, rabbits running over farmland and a working class community. Serie is an ex-school teacher and works in the field of Adult and Commuity Education in Waitakere City.
Most recently published in Snorkel, Fugacity, Trout 12 and Whetu Moana, Tinfish.
One of her poems featured in Poets Corner on Artville in 2006.
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