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