Faafetai Taase, wrote "New Zealand Is A Polynation", one of the classic "Ol' Skool" poems of young New Zealand Born Faasamoa, published on the net for the first time. The poems "rhythm not rhyme", "taupou", and "life imitates art" are his most recent works, written to work out characterisations for his work in progress: the filmscript "Signore Ascolta". He lives in Titahi Bay, Porirua, and is currently planning the Samoan invasion of Hollywood.
New Zealand Is A Polynation
Hey Daughters of the Hibiscus
Sons of the Sea and Sand.
Remember the old plantation
That we worked with the sweat of our hand.
Caressing Life at our fingertips
Land that was our families
And forever Ours
Do you remember.?
Here, our home, our land, is not ours.
It belongs to: the mortgage
the finance company
the housing corp
the debt collectors
It belongs to a thousand pieces of paper.
But it's ours too.until a better place comes along.
Do you understand?
Here, my father works in the shadow
Of the flashing arclight and thus said he:
Learn Well
Open Wide The Books
Learn How To Earn The Bucks Everyday
Learn How To Do It - The Palagi Way.
So, what now.?
I know who we were
I know who we want to be
But who are we now?
Is there an answer.
Daughters of the Hibiscus
Sons of the Sea?
For the Sons of Todds
And the Daughters of the Late night Cleaning
All I hear is silence.
glossary: arclight - welder's torch, its flash and glow dancing on metal;
Todds - the local car assembly plant here in my home town - it closed down
years back.
