Dear Matefele Peinam by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner dear matafele peinam, you are a seven month old sunrise of gummy smiles you are bald as an egg and bald as the buddha you are thunder thighs and lightning shrieks so excited for bananas, hugs and our morning walks past the lagoon dear matafele peinam, i want to tell you about that lagoon that lucid, sleepy lagoon lounging against the sunrise some men say that one day that lagoon will devour you they say it will gnaw at the shoreline chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees gulp down rows of your seawalls and crunch your island’s shattered bones they say you, your daughter and your granddaughter, too will wander rootless with only a passport to call home dear matafele peinam, don’t cry mommy promises you no one will come and devour you no greedy whale of a company sharking through political seas no backwater bullying of businesses with broken morals no blindfolded bureaucracies gonna push this mother ocean over the edge no one’s drowning, baby no one’s moving no one’s losing their homeland no one’s gonna become a climate change refugee or should i say no one else to the carteret islanders of papua new guinea and to the taro islanders of fiji i take this moment to apologize to you we are drawing the line here because baby we are going to fight your mommy daddy bubu jimma your country and president too we will all fight and even though there are those hidden behind platinum titles who like to pretend that we don’t exist that the marshall islands tuvalu kiribati maldives and typhoon haiyan in the philippines and floods of pakistan, algeria, and colombia and all the hurricanes, earthquakes, and tidalwaves didn’t exist still there are those who see us hands reaching out fists raising up banners unfurling megaphones booming and we are canoes blocking coal ships we are the radiance of solar villages we are the rich clean soil of the farmer’s past we are petitions blooming from teenage fingertips we are families biking, recycling, reusing, engineers dreaming, designing, building, artists painting, dancing, writing we are spreading the word and there are thousands out on the street marching with signs hand in hand chanting for change NOW they’re marching for you, baby they’re marching for us because we deserve to do more than just survive we deserve to thrive dear matafele peinam, you are eyes heavy with drowsy weight so just close those eyes, baby and sleep in peace because we won’t let you down you’ll see MOTHER’S POEM TO SIX-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER TRIGGERS STANDING OVATION On 23 September 2014, 26 year old poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, from the Marshall Islands, addressed the Opening Ceremony of the UN Secretary-Generals Climate Summit. Kathy was selected from among over 500 civil society candidates in an open, global nomination process conducted by the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service. youtu.be/DJuRjy9k7GA
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 00:09:57 +0000
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