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Tuna

Kumalau Tawali

Tuna you are the mirror of the blue
Tuna you are the pain in my veins
Tuna you are lord.

When I set out to catch you
I am a prisoner of taboos.
“Don’t dangle legs over the side of the canoe.”
“Don’t whistle for merriment.”
“Is your thought straight?”
“Is your wife having her first pregnancy?”
“Are you newly married?”
All this awkwardness is my duty.

But on the market you are the sun.
You darken the eye of the inland man
when he offers plenty in exchange
without bargain — just to get you.

You are worth the pain in my veins.


Kumalau Tawali

from Modern Poetry from Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby: Papua Pocket Poets, 1972)

Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.

Tags:

capitalism ecology fishing islands jobs money Papua New Guinea superstition

About this poem

This poem, representing Papua New Guinea, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Kumalau Tawali1946 - 2006

Kumalau Tawali was born in Tawi, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. In 1969 he won the National Literature Competition for his short story, Breaking the Ear. His book of poems, Signs in the Sky (1970) was the first collection...
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