LAPIEH LANDU
An entry in the Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry
For Mark Landu Markeso
So here you are, ready to leave
With your bilum and laden valise
Crew cut and whitened teeth
Tall and toned from head to toe
Draped with my divergent sulu
As if it were your own
With deep gratitude emitting
From every tangible guise
What now do I give you?
I’ve primed your becoming
From when you graced our paths
To your forlorn departure
I once watched a boy lurch in
One hand in his pocket
And head plucked beside his mother
Shy, dubious and crude
I saw no dad
Another year darts by
I watch this boy trudge in
Both hands in his pocket
Head still plucked beside his mother
Shy, dubious and crude
I saw no dad
This year I watched a lad walk in
No hands in his pockets
Head still plucked beside his mother
No longer shy, dubious and crude
I saw no dad
Now I watch a man walk out
No hands in his pockets
Or head plucked beside his mother
Gratitude in his eyes, blissful of his becoming
And still do dad
He is ready, He is vigorous, He is resilient.
This poem is a dedication to my cousin who went abroad to study in Fiji, at Cawaci College on Levuka Island. It’s a mission school, very old but very disciplined. This poem relates his experience with the school Principal. Being brought up by a single mother, the Principal was almost like a father figure to him. The priest inculcated positive change in an ambitious young boy to assist him become a man