LEONARD FONG ROKA
An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry
My Buka
My Bougainville
My sable proud dot in the wide blue sparkling sea
My humble islands and atolls;
Valleys and marshlands; mountains and a plateau,
Peopled by the black man and woman
Singing high on stilts of greenish slopes
And deep in the dells and low in the sandy beaches
To the sun that shines black and sets tenebrous.
My Buka
My Bougainville
My inky sad dot in the wide intimidating sea
My humble islands and atolls;
Valleys and marshlands; mountains and a plateau,
Peopled by a wondering jet-black man and woman
Weeping low under the fog and wind
To the sun that rises pitch-black and sets brown.
My Buka
My Bougainville
My coal-black dying dot in the wide lethal ocean
My humble islands and atolls;
Valleys and marshlands; mountains and a plateau,
Peopled by a weakling stygian man and woman
Muttering new songs of freedom
To the sun that raises brown and now setting nigrescent
My Buka
My Bougainville
Freedom and love for you,
My Bougainville.