I read this poem today in the Tampa Bay Times--best Ive read in a long time if not ever, and I want to share it: A poets hope for her baby girl Dear Matafele Peinem, You are a seven-month-old Sunrise of gummy smiles You are bald as an egg and bald as the Buddha You are thighs that are thunder, shreiks that are lightning So excited for bananas, hugs And our morning walks along the lagoon Dear Matafele Peinum, I want to tell you about that lagoon That lucid, sleepy lagoon lounging against the sunrise 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 through your islands shattered bones They say you, your daughter And your granddaughter, too WIll wander rootless With only a passport to call home Dear Matafele Painem, Dont 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 ones drowning, baby No ones moving No ones losing their homeland No ones 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 pretend that we dont exist That the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati Maldives and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines And floods of Pakistan, Algeria and Colombia And hurricanes, tidal waves And earthquakes didnt 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 farmers 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 Theyre marching for you, baby Theyre marching for us Because we deserve to do more than just survive We deserve to thrive Dear Matafele Peinem, You are eyes heavy with drowsy weight So just close those eyes, baby And sleep in peace because We wont let you down Youll see by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 14:23:09 +0000