Ae e fakapikopiko! (redux)

I have to apologise for the lack of action on this blog over the last week: I've been scrambling along the paths of 'Eua Island, a place where internet cafes are as scarce as glaciers. I was back in Nuku'alofa last night to watch the World Cup clash between Tonga and Japan, a game which left roosters and dogs, let alone drunken Tongans and palangis, in a state of supernatural excitement. I'll be home tomorrow, so normal service will soon resume.

In the meantime you could always check out the previews of Tongan Ark, Paul's Janman's film about 'Atenisi University in particular, and about the messy genius of Tongan society in general. Unlike yours truly, who is always a tourist, no matter where he goes, Paul spent two years in the warm welcoming belly of Tongatapu, teaching Faust and Don Quixote in a sort of palangi Tongan pidgin to the sons and daughters of vanilla farmers.

Here's a quick poem:

Ode to 'Eua

not to the mountains
to their broken-backed creeks
their herds of fattening banyan

but to the lowlands,
to the coconuts shelling
black broken soil,
the pigs impaled
over backyard fires

*

not the royal Red 'Eua parrot
but the common ground dove