Entering the Unknown by Syed Hassan Pasha.
Image courtesy of the artist.
New Year’s Day 2010
I wish I was staying here
eating the special fish of the month
drinking coffee
drinking coffee
s
l
o
w
l
y
Ahhhhh………………nice
this is the life
“like no other island dream”*
wanting to prolong my visit
I go to the bar
hesitate when I see
they are there
it’s always the same
they are so comfortable
so at ease
smelling of sunscreen and Corona
sipping cocktails
talking amongst each other
about diving
big groupers and reef sharks
diving in other exotic places
perhaps I ought to take lessons?
the thought of relying on a tank for oxygen
being down where we humans don’t belong
has always scared me
I mean
what if I ran out of oxygen
and ended up like them?
completely oblivious
to the fact that
they are far from home
~ Emelihter Kihleng
Poet’s note: “like no other island dream” is the Palau Pacific Resort motto.
Emelihter Kihleng lectures in Creative Writing and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi. Throughout her life she has island-hopped around Oceania – from Guam, her birthplace, to her home Island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, to Honolulu, where she was raised, and to Wellington, New Zealand, where she completed her PhD in Pacific Studies at Victoria University. Her first and only book of poetry, ‘My Urohs’, was published in 2008.
