Thursday, June 30, 2011

For Makelesi Taulepa: Fefine mei Ofu (my father's mother) - Karlo Mila

For Makelesi Taulepa: Fefine mei Ofu (my father's mother)
- Karlo Mila

you
and your giving
you gave to the church
and gave and gave
you gave our land
you gave money
you gave your voice in song
you gave your time in prayer

you gave to the neighbours
you loved more than thyself
you gave and gave
the best of what we had
and they gave us
their rotting leftovers

you spent your lifetime
giving and smacking
strapping and praying
laughing and cooking
cleaning and working

you thought I was spoiled
because at five
I couldn't hand-wash my own clothes
I thought you were strange
because at sixty
you didn't know
that marmite goes on top of butter
not under it

my own father
was afraid of you
and your holiness

that you wore
like a ta'ovala
tied so tight
to your body

my father
was afarid of you
and your giving

you gave away
until you had nothing
nothing but the honour of your giving
and in your death
that became everything

at your putu
it were as if a flock of flying foxes
throbbed black in the sky in the sunlight
the horizon swimming in black satins
a town in mourning
for the woman who had only
what she gave away

I wonder grandmother
will you in your meekness
inherit the earth
as the church inherited ours?

I am a ta'ahine hala tu'i
but you will always be
a fefine mei Ofu
you and your gifts
are in my blood

within you
was the beginning
of the best of us



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.
http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

No Ordinary Sun

No Ordinary Sun
- Hone Tuwhare

Tree let your arms fall:
raise them not sharply in supplication
to the bright enhaloed cloud.
Let your arms lack toughness and
resilience for this is no mere axe
to blunt nor fire to smother.

Your sap shall not rise again
to the moon’s pull.
No more incline a deferential head
to the wind’s talk, or stir
to the tickle of coursing rain.

Your former shagginess shall not be
wreathed with the delightful flight
of birds nor shield
nor cool the ardour of unheeding
lovers from the monstrous sun.

Tree let your naked arms fall
nor extend vain entreaties to the radiant ball.
This is no gallant monsoon’s flash,
no dashing trade wind’s blast.
The fading green of your magic
emanations shall not make pure again
these polluted skies . . . for this
is no ordinary sun.

O tree
in the shadowless mountains
the white plains and
the drab sea floor
your end at last is written.



http://www.honetuwhare.co.nz/poems.php

He Piko he Taniwha, he Piko he Taniwha - Karlo Mila

He Piko he Taniwha, he Piko he Taniwha
- Karlo Mila

at every bend of the river
a body
at every corner a corpse

this river is damned
with women
I have left behind

I see my memory
in their bloated faces

eyes blank and full of story
waiting for me
to re-member them

lips cold closed chanting
whispering for me
to rec-call them

dream fish floating from their mouths
star fish flying from their eyes
singing through the energy of the current
I hear them ghosting on the surface of the water
liquid memory

at every bend
a body
at every corner
a corpse

there lie the girls
I have loved before
there lie the girls
I have left behind

wild hair straying like tentacles
clinging to drifting wood

onwards I swim with quick thich thighs
still shedding selves like seal skins in the silver of the
moonlight

there is one who sings downstream
the loneliest song of regret
she treaded water for the longest time
waiting for me
to recall her

when the river levels rise
she sits upright
and opens here eyes wide
waiting for that kiss of life to come

but I have left her behind
drowning her memory
beneath the surface

there are
so many women scattered
in the wake of my choices

at every bend a body
at every corner a corpse




Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.
http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Pikipiki hama kae vaevae manava - Karlo Mila

Pikipiki hama kae vaevae manava
- Karlo Mila

The same wish
slipped into each disc
of my back

I hoped you'd bring balance
like an outrigger
we would move
double hulled
through life

you would keep me sure and swift
on a surface of glistening water
water melting into water
melody running into blue
blye sinking deep into ocean

I dreamed of balance on such a surface
I dreamed of the feeling of floating

the same wish
slipped into each disc
of my back

now I'm stretching

falling through open arms
melting into fluid
into foam
lungs flooded with fear

if i pulled each wish
from my back
one by one
maybe
I might
float buoyant
on the strength of my own spine



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Tane Mahuta - Karlo Mila

Tane Mahuta
- Karlo Mila

Tane Mahuta
holding up the sky
weathering storms
absorbing lightning
holding tears in your leaves
cupped gentle in your fingertips

Tane Mahuta
I see your face
unblinking in the sun
I see you blow kisses at the stars
you look into the eye of the moon
and smile back at her when tears threaten

Tane Mahuta
a forest will gather gentle around you
I want to wrap my arms aroud your limbs
feel your heart beat against my chest
I will strip away the dead leaves
I will carry your seeds in my pockets

Tane Mahuta
I want to help lift your heavy heart
from your foundations
to the uttermost tips of your twigs
I will sing with the birds
resting in your elbows
I will war their feathers
in my hair

Tane Mahuta
evergreen to me
I will hide in the hollow of your heart
and sing the sacred song
to your spirit
I will tickle your toes
and the whole forest will quake
with your laughter



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Death of a DJ - Karlo Mila

Death of a DJ
- Karlo Mila

the needle you used
to mend the tears beneath the fabric
that for so long
successfully hemmed in the unravelling fears
did its fair share of unpicking
because there isn't a flicker of recognition
in your colourless eyes
when you turn up at my door
you've just got power to sell and pamphlets
to pass on, I check your nametag
which confirms you are you
skin the colour of concrete holding water
crushed eggshell of a boy I once knew
who wore black pepper bowler hats
with salt white hair
and DJed till dawn
the coolest cat in town
now on the edge of your ninth life

I heard your hypodermic sewing circle disbanded
that you can't show your face in Wellington
leaving a string of bad debts and worse judgement calls
behind you
as you pass me the power prices
I grind my teeth in anger
at the false intimacy a name badge allows
as you are reduced to a shaky
biro blue rendition
of your former phat black vivid tagged self
and I want to say

I'm not the billpaqyer
but I want to buy what you're selling
and I want to say
I'm not a Christian
but the prodigal son was probably an addict
and God be with you
but instead
I just think about how a shooting star
is the same thing as a falling star
and he's diappeared down our driveway
going door to door
selling what's left of his power



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.
http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Monday, June 20, 2011

Leaving Prince Charming Behind - Karlo Mila

Leaving Prince Charming Behind
- Karlo Mila

For a while I thought we were living the fairytale
but sadly I realised that this the myth
and you were so busy believing
that we were living the happily ever after
I don't think you noticed for a while
I'd rejected the role of princess in your production.

I am Rapunzel with her dreadlocks shorn
tyring to pull down the tower with broken nails
cursing your name.

I believed you the architect of my isolation
and it didn't matter
what you tried to do
the poison apple was lodged firmly in my throat
and not believing in glass slipper
redemption
I worked my own midnight magic for all it was worth
red blood, white cloth
mirrors on the wall.

My poor dark prince on your gallant white horse
the shoe didn't fit
your kiss couldn't wake me up
to your way of thinking.

I transformed myself into
a beautiful dragon
you felt honour bound
to slay.




Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Poroproaki - Karlo Mila

Poroproaki
- Karlo Mila

E koro,
even though were a pakeha
I miss your wheezing breath
your shadow no longer falls
on the hill high above my house
and all there is left is an overmarked grave
an empty tomb
once I could feel your chest rise and fall
in disappointment over the city
once you were a strong young pine
with a heart of timber
full of colonial ambitions
before colonial became a bad word
you stood proudly
without memory of the gods
that had stood before you
no doubt burned down for farmland
these days
we are not so young and innocent
and you, e pa,
gnarled and weathered in the wind
a sign, a symbol, a living flag
whipping racial divison into a frenzy
and fielling patriotic fire
you, e ranatira,
because of age not wisdom
because of position
not deeds
a heart of timber
arohanui old fella
I mis hearing you breathe at night
I miss your crooked arithritc fingers
that touched Auckland city somehow
you strange ugly tree
rest.




Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.
http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Octopus Auckland: 8 Suburbs - Karlo Mila

Octopus Auckland: 8 Suburbs
- Karlo Mila

1.
in mission bay
the beaches
shakes the imported grains
off their backs
and sigh with the tide
that creeps up to the shops
wet with rain
hoping to snatch
somer ecycled treasure from the shoreline
like a shoplifter

2.
in ponsonby
a smeared oil rainbow licks the gutter
glittering fat
reflecting colour
the rain-swell from last night
froths like a latte
through the grated bars of the drain
the flat white crowd
sips long blacks for breakfast
four and forty
four wheel drives
tread lightly
on city slicker streets

3.
in mangere bridge
one bridge stands perfectly still
watching the other
social climbing with traffic
the old bridge
has 'gone fishing'
and tongan boys
prod stingrays
breathless
bloated and poached
on the concrete
with friendly eyes
they greet us in samoan
and the rocks rumble with sea

4.
in grey lynn
all is semi-detached
and sub-divided
old ice cream villas
sliced like cake
into bite sized flats
full of upwardly mobile ex-students
willing to settle for off-street parking
these old villas
must remember back thirty years
to the slap of jandals
and wooden floors
groaning under the weight of cross-legged choir practice
hallelujah
sounding the same
in any language

5.
in mangere
david tua's parents' house
grimaces and flexes muscle
like a castle in the legends
of dutiful samoan children
and the honour of their parents
it stands almost as big as the school next door
but is dwarfed
by the church
where the huge mirrored arching window
has been boarded over
since the first time i saw it
'just asking to be smashed'
my partner explains
he grew up down the road

6.
in onehunga
the monolith looms
on the hill
we all see
what is missing
as keenly
as what
is left behind
the slopes of cornwall park
rolling gentle and green
a central city country estate
shared by joggers and dog walkers
scaring sheep
avoiding bulls

7.
in hillsborough
there are two indian dairies
side by side
i buy lotto from one
and everything else from the other
from a man whose smile is so tender and wide
it can wallop my heart while buying the paper
he gives me last week's magazine for free
i wonder at what point
he made the choice
that brought him here
sitting behind chocolate bars
bordered by boxes of cigarettes
pornography above his head.

8.
in mt eden
is the doctor
i go to
she is beautiful and blonde
well dressed
with hairy legs
her herbal tea
fills the air with raspberries and camomile
last week she was sick
and the lady doctor who saw me indtead
asked
in perfect earl grey english
where i came from
originally?

not auckland
ireplied

auckland
you feke
you octopusof a city
wrapping your tentacles around me
clinging to my skin
sticking to my surfaces
leaving welts and bites
of place and location
on my body

auckland
you feke
ever changing migrant colours
iridescent
trickster
of a city



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/tag/karlo%20mila

Friday, June 17, 2011

For Ida (first Pacific woman judge) - Karlo Mila

For Ida (first Pacific woman judge)
- Karlo Mila

Once I wrote

that we are the seeds of the migrant dream
the daughters supposed to fill the promise
hope heavy on our shoulders
we stand on the broken back of physical labour
knowing the new dawn has been raided.

But

we are the seeds of a much greater dream
that goes back across oceans of memory
a vision still held in the hands
of humble men buried in humble villages
who chant clear our paths
with every lost breath.

Ida, you have spoken of the sacrifice
of language lost, and the cost,
of success in the palangi world
and you have wrapped your own son safely
in fa'asamoa
he rests in a nest of language
learning to tame words
that flew like wild gulls
far beyond our understanding.

'This is the sacrifice of my generation'
you said
'but it will not be his,
this is where the sacrifice stops.'

The gull circles
and nest
and our sense of selves
rests.

You touch a vision
clasped to the breast
of humble women buried in humble villages
who still sing
across oceans of memory
in words that our children will be able to hear.




Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Thursday, June 16, 2011

From Pink Katie to Blue Carrie (for Andrea) - Karlo Mila

From Pink Katie to Blue Carrie (for Andrea)
- Karlo Mila

You were always the Charlie's Angel
men should have married
they never seemed to know any better.

We were gingham girls
sewed tight-lipped together
escaping hand-me-down harship
by living a paper thin paper doll existence
hooked on happy families
on rainy days.

I remember
how we wished for the elevated status
of cork filled high heels
on slave sandal budgets.

We practised being detectives
plastic hand-guns on our hipsd
you were my white-chick side-kick
my partner in solving crime
as I drama queened it through
my too-tanned over-olive skinned existence
tragically darker than Daisy Duke.

And when I needed to be a princess in pastel pink
or a bride in white
in someone's old petticoat
with mismatched elbow length gloves
and a shabby red rose at my throat
you would alternate between prince, frog, groom or
Remington Steele
just to keep the game going.


Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

On joining Pasifika (for Jo) - Karlo Mila

On joining Pasifika (for Jo)
- Karlo Mila

When I first met you
we were learning to siva
wearing lavalava tied in awkward knots
our work clothes carefully folded away
both of us
learning a new dance
both of us
finding a different way to move
through life

We have hustled and bustled
and power-walked well
somehow
sacrificing the grace
and ease of movement
our grandmothers held in their hands

When we met
both of us
were trying to remember
that earlier beat

Both of us trying to reclaim
a new dance from old memories
both us standing shyly
in the back-row
trying to siva in our sports socks
both of us searching for a rhythm
we’d never quite
been able to find
within ourselves

All of us trying to find time
to ta’olunga
to meke
to tamule
to siva
into our truest selves



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Beyond Blackbirder Legacies (for Moera Grace Douthett) - Karlo Mila

Beyond Blackbirder Legacies (for Moera Grace Douthett)
- Karlo Mila

I see the ancestors watching you
men with eyes like cold blue pebbles of glass
lumps of light
that hold no reflection

they hover
these men
from a respectable distance
eyeing the brown women
who sing and dance
joyously
invading your space
stamping their feet
so close around you
sometimes
I can smell the flowers in their hair
they sing raucous
through your spirits
they echo through your laughter

they are the sort of women
who walk through fire
harvest kalo
scrub pots
in Sunday best
these women you come through
who deiantly laught
at the men at the edges of your aura

I see their pride
in who you have chosen to be
and in claiming your ancestors
they recognise
whose libes you have chosen to become

those traders
those blackbirders
those beachcombers
those colonisers
who see that you could 'pass' for one of them
and yet you turn away from the light and the white
of your own face and features

they watch you with eyes of stone

they is a knowing
in their eyes also
at the lives you have chosen to become

yet you stnd shadowed
those ghosts you wear
so heavy in your eyes

we all see
that it is the fire-walking women
who sing through your smile
and guide
your feet
to the heights
they have reached



Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Monday, June 13, 2011

For Albert Wendt (On his Birthday) - Karlo Mila

For Albert Wendt (On his Birthday)
- Karlo Mila

you dare to fish
beyond the coral reefs
of our understanding

your net pulls in poems
flicking salty tales

you find nuanua
in the eye of hurricanes
celebrate thunder
we prefer not to hear
and relish
the quicksilver laughter
of lightning

you shake the tree
of the frangipani
and as the flowers fall from grace
you string them into sentences
ants and all

your narrative is a needle
that pierces the thickest skin
the ink of your pen
blending with our blood
tattooing stories of altered genealogies
between the lines
of our naked bodies

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Eating Dark Chocolate and watching Paul Holmes' Apology - Karlo Mila

Eating Dark Chocolate and watching Paul Holmes' Apology
- Karlo Mila

i am sucking on a sante bar / sneaked / bought at pak'n'save
in a cigarette gold wrapper / i remember when you bought
them in dairies / they were stripped and served undressed /
edges worm from the friction / getting down with the
brown / chocolate dust was in the air

i am watching paul holmes apologise for calling kofi annan a
darkie / darkie takes me back to

6 years old / school grounds /see-saws / we won the
war / we won the war in 1944 / mean boys alternating
between catch and kissing and sticks and stones / darkie /
tania got called blackie / golliwog / i remember being
thankful i was pretty and fair / and had long hair / no one
called me manu off playschool or darkie / i was a milk
chocolate glass and a half / half caste / caramello enough to
be safe from bitter dark accusations

tonight paul holmes apologised for calling kofi annan a
darkie / takes me back to

10 years old / sitting on my dad's stomach / him flat on the
sofa / we're watching a week night movie / southern
drawls and white sheets / me crying hot wet tears over
black men with hurt in their eyes / what does lynching
mean maka? / my daddy / dark / my feet dangling off his
tummy / me milky brown chocolatey sweet / wanting
to grow up and be prime minister / or a lawyer like
matlock / make everything all right for darkies everywhere

tonight paul holmes apologised for calling kofi annan a
darkie / takes me back

15 years old / barry / surf lifesaver / washboard abs /
the mattel man / automatic winking machine / ambivalent
crush / half hate / half fetish / blonde frosting in his fringe /
darkies / that's what he called us / hope you don't mind
darkies / he said / setting up his mate / flirting on the phone

tonight paul holmes apologised for calling kofi annan a
darkie / takes me back

17 years old / do you think they would ever let a boonga
be prime minister / corey p / dreadlocked bob marley
wannabe / says to me / mocking laughter / he's drunk at
three / in highbury / but we never dreamed they'd let an
indian woman be mayor of dunedin / so let's sukhi it to
them corey p / we were darkies anonymous then / making
fun of ourselves before anyone else could / revolution in
the bottom of a bong / cutting off our veins to spite our
lives /

tonight paul holmes apologised to the nation

i am 28 / aucklander / jokes about jaffas don't involve
maoris and minis / just another f-ing aucklander / the
p.i.'s here outnumber prejudice in wide open spaces /
skinheads low key / less closely shorn / too much rugby
league brawn / on the arms of coconuts / i've been told
i'm the cream rising to the top / the cream of the crop /
nesian queen / rank and file member of the chocolate
soldier movement / getting down witht he brown /

tonight paul holmes apologised

sorry / he said / i've hurt my family / i may have hurt
yours /

yes / we scrapped in the car over it / there was yelling / by
the time we got to the end of the mangere motorway / i
was crying / who is this redneck with the big brown
shoulders sitting next me / anti pc / darker than me /
defending freedom of speech / but i don't want it to be all
right /

/ i don't want my kids to have stanzas of darkie memories /

sorry / paul holmes said / i could see that he meant it / i felt
sad for him / and happy / i signed the petition to say he
should get sacked / i am a manager in a govt department /
not matlock / not the pm / just a member of the chocolate
soldier movement / melting in the middle

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Virgin Loi - Karlo Mila

Virgin Loi
- Karlo Mila

looking back,
do I wish I had a Tongan mother
who guarded my chastity
with a bible in one hand
and a taufale in the other?
instead of my pale, polite, palangi mum
who gave me the freedom to choose
and understoof that all the rest of the girls I knew
used tampons

do I wish I'd had a Tongan mother
who put the fear of God himself into me
so that in the heat of many moments
I'd say No
I'm worth more
let's see the rock
buy me shit
and treat me like a princess
(until after we're married
and then I'll be your baby making
black eyed doormat)

those Tongan girls
I see them stare
see my skin half palangi fair
I watch your nostrils flare
I see you sio lalo

I know the coconut wireless
is so efficient
that I cannot get away
with what's actually true
let alone what is pure libel

once I thought I had a choice
and a right to choose
and I believed that ignorance
wasn't bliss
and experience
led to wisdom

I see you sio lalo

so what, I say
I won't wear white on my wedding day
cream suits me better anyway
I say
laughing on the outside
but on the inside
my hymen is broken

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Friday, June 10, 2011

This is love (for David) - Karlo Mila

This is love (for David)
- Karlo Mila

you’ve taken / the roots of / my thoughts on / what love is /
this understanding I’ve created over the years /
so ripe / so red / in your big hands / brown / custodial

you put them in a pot / large bucket / on your front
doorstep / a place in the Papatoetoe sun / this is love you
say / watering / tending / a careful eye at the end of the day

it is seeds sown in the hopeful spring / hiccups of hope /
scattered sheets / seed spread bed / it is shedding dead leaves
in autumn / and you prune / me / cutting fingertips
tenderly / bleeding softly into soil / blistering gently / the
test is you say / whether we will survive winter / there
will be many winters / soaked with rain / frost on car
window mornings

this is love you say / endurance through / every / every day /
season

this is what I have learned.

love is not a bunch of red roses / blossomed into the peak
of their beauty / cut at the height of their passion / long
stemmed /bikini lined / full lipped / red perfect

love is / the watering / the watching / the pruning / the
tending / the providing of new buckets / the finding of
new doorsteps /

love is not something one simply wears
behind their ears
in full bloom


http://msgrahams12english.pbworks.com/w/page/25894298/%27IS-THIS-LOVE%27-POETRY-UNIT

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Our Mother IOur Mother Is In Love - Karlo Mila

Our Mother IOur Mother Is In Love
- Karlo Mila

You are so busy giving him the best of you
we are left with the scraps
fry up, boil up, bubble and squeak
we are throwing you to the birds

you are a partner now
a part of someone
all we have
are your lukewarm leftovers
we are throwing you to the birds

we are feeding you to the cat




From Dream Fish Floating
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/pasifika/mila2.asp

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

For John Pule - Karlo Mila

For John Pule
- Karlo Mila


the poet told us
there was a beach
but a hurricane came
and swallowed it up

there was also a nation of people
but a New Zealand sponsored
hurricane
just as hungry
swept away people like grains of sand

with the help of
longremembered newfound family
he finds the old foundations
where hibiscus trees grow wild
with memories of his mother

using a new machete
he follows the old tracks
to a not-so-distant past
meeting his ancestors along the way
capturing them on canvas
mapping out their stories
so they will
never be lost

and his own children
will be able to find them





From Dream Fish Floating
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/pasifika/mila1.asp

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Monday, June 6, 2011

Wednesday Afternoon (for Maka) - Karlo Mila

Wednesday Afternoon (for Maka)
- Karlo Mila


my father is ‘having fun’
clarning the floor
he uses the plugged in sink as a bucket
wears rags on his feet
and shimmies to a cleaning beat
he asks me to read the label
on the bottle for him
he wants our floor to shine
and laughs when (surplices)
it does
this is how I will remember him
moonwalking across our kitchen floor
rags under his feet
‘that’s how my mother taught me’
he says
‘but I never take any note
it take me forty years to do what she say’





From Dream Fish Floating
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/pasifika/mila1.asp

Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Sunday, June 5, 2011

On joining Pasifika (for Jo) - Karlo Mila

On joining Pasifika (for Jo)
- Karlo Mila


When I first met you
we were learning to siva
wearing lavalava tied in awkward knots
our work clothes carefully folded away
both of us
learning a new dance
both of us
finding a different way to move
through life

We have hustled and bustled
and power-walked well
somehow
sacrificing the grace
and ease of movement
our grandmothers held in their hands

When we met
both of us
were trying to remember
that earlier beat

Both of us trying to reclaim
a new dance from old memories
both us standing shyly
in the back-row
trying to siva in our sports socks
both of us searching for a rhythm
we’d never quite
been able to find
within ourselves

All of us trying to find time
to ta’olunga
to meke
to tamule
to siva
into our truest selves




From Dream Fish Floating
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/pasifika/mila1.asp


Karlo Mila is of Tongan, Palangi and Samoan descent. She was born in Rotorua, grew up in Palmerston North and now lives and works in Auckland. She has had poetry published in Whetu Moana, Best New Zealand Poems 2003, Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of Fusion Poetry, the Listener and Coffee and Coconuts. Karlo performs live poetry regularly.

http://nixie1.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=karlo%20mila

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Postman - Gordon Challis

The Postman
- Gordon Challis

This cargo of confessions, messages,
demands to pay, seems none of my concern;
you could say I'm a sort of go-between
for abstract agents trusting wheels will turn,
for censored voices stilled in space and time.

Some people stop me for a special letter;
one or two will tell me, if it's fine, that I
have picked the right job for this kind of weather.
A boy who understands life somewhat better
asks where postmen life - if not our office, why?

The work is quite routine but kindness
and awkward problems crop up now and then:
one old lady sometimes startles passers-by
claiming she is blameless as she hisses
at people present in her reminiscent ken;

she startled me as well the other day,
gave me a glass of lemonade and slipped
me a letter to deliver - 'Don't you say
a word to anyone, it's no concerns
of theirs, or yours.' Nor more it was, except

here was this letter plainly marked 'To God'
and therefore insufficiently addressed.
I cannot stamp it now 'Return to sender'
for addressee and sender may be One. The best
thing is burn it, to a black rose He'll remember.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Elegy for an unknown soldier - James K. Baxter

Elegy for an unknown soldier
- James K. Baxter

There was a time when I would magnify
His ending; scatter words as if I wept
Tears not by own but man's; there was a time.
But not now so. He died of a common sickness.

Nor did any new star shine
Upon the day when he came crying out
Of fleshy darkness to a world of pain,
And waxed eyelids let the daylight enter.

So felt and tasted, found earth good enough.
Later he played with stones and wondered
If there was land beyond the dark sea rim
And where the road led out of the farthest paddock.

Awkward at school, he could not master sums.
Could you expect him then to understand
The miracle and menace of his body
That grew as mushrooms grow from dusk to dawn?

He had the weight, though, for a football scrum,
And thought it fine to listen to the cheering
And drink beer with the boys, telling them tall
Stories of girls that he had never known.

So when the War came he was glad and sorry,
But soon enlisted. Then his mother cried
A little, and his father boasted how
He'd let him go, though needed for the farm.

Likely in Egypt he would find out something
About himself, if flies and drunkenness
And deadly heat could tell him much - until
In his first battle a shell splinter caught him.

So crown him with memorial bronze among
The older dead, child of a mountainous island.
Wings of a tarnished victory shadow him
Who born of silence has burned back to silence.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

High Country Weather - James K. Baxter

High Country Weather
- James K. Baxter

Alone we are born
and die alone;
Yet see the red-gold cirrus
over snow-mountain shine.

Upon the upland road
Ride easy, stranger:
Surrender to the sky
Your heart of anger.