Kaho, Simone

Pretty

1. Some people say
2.  
3. You’re too pretty to be Tongan
4. which is funny because
5. it’s usually Tongans who say it.
6.  
7. It is a short-cut to make a big distance between us
8. and casually call me Palagi at the same time.
9. I can hardly see if they are still waving
10. from that
11. long shore
12. far away
13.  
14. where they are having an umu with family.
15.  
16. Feasting and belonging together
17. but this time
18. the umu is too deep
19. in the ground.
20. The food takes on the flavour of dirt.
21.  
22. I see them
23. eating pink gashes into the pig,
24. which is the same colour
25. as flesh-coloured dolls.
26.  
27. Deep-breathing-eating-praying
28.  
29. We thank you for our daily bread.
30.  
31. Pig juice to the roots of their fingers
32. so now they can be forced into tight holes
33. or slipped out of rings.
34.  
35. Mmm boaka mmm
36. – you don’t eat meat do you?
37.  
38. No but some Palagis do
39.  
40. My mother
41. another Palagi,
42. she eats bacon with her flesh-coloured mouth.
43.  
44. She said she heard the pigs crying     once
45. before they were killed
46. by the Tongans.
47.  
48. She said
49.  
50. They sounded like women.