Favourite titles

Favourite titles
Whether it is "Redefining literary techniques and devices", "Justifying Papua New Guinea Literature", or "Translating the Bible into Anuki", these offer valuable reading for the paperless student of literature, and indeed the best sort of literary entertainment you can get out of Papua New Guinea. Check them out either on Soaba's Storyboard or The Anuki Country Press.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

TALKING ABOUT MY PORT MORESBY


                                              
O friend
O fellow mariner
How can I ever forget you?
At 16 I sailed into your harbour
tired, hungry, lost somewhat
yet fascinated when I woke up the next day
from the Koki Mission Station
to look upon your stilled waters again
your ever enduring beauty.

There and then did I first

set my sight upon you
my eternal lover

I will never forget you

I will never abandon you
my Port Moresby!

                                    
I first set my foot on Port Moresby's soil at 16. The township then was the most beautiful in the Territory. There were no such places as Tokarara, Gerehu, Waigani, Erima or Morata. These were bush, the hunting grounds of the Motu/Koitabus. 

In fact, as recently as the 70s we could see some maganis come out at dawn, lick their paws before the morning sun and start chomping away at the lawn that surrounded the Waigani campus. That is how fresh and hygienic Port Moresby was then.

Today, the whole city is so overridden with trash and filth not a single one of our so-called "social engineers" knows how to clean the mess up. Sad... so sad.

                                        
This post is dedicated to Gerard Dogimab and Michael Midiwabu.                

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