blackmail press 40
Leilani Tamu
first published issue 33



The fecund people - Andy Leleisi'uao 2014
index
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.