Street Alphabet
10 June 2016
An entry in the 2016 Crocodile Prize
To ol bata na susa blo Rabaul Town
A is for Ah Tam, a bata's paradise:
where good guys become bad boys in a blitz,
where raw rebels revel with blood-red eyes.
B brews four, five, six, seven eight-hour bakets,
and gets you nine packets of cigarettes.
C takes you anytime to classic nightclubs:
Zoo Club, Darkmoon and Hamamas Hotel,
where strumpets milk big-shots through luscious rubs.
D that sly, smart, slick, slock veteran dealer
who built a palace just down the corner.
E little Ellice who eloped at eighteen,
celebrated her nineteenth somewhere else,
and came back home thinking she's still sixteen.
F is the mungaii who finds a futsu,
and ditched his common, faithful wakuku.
G those lil' pathetic gangsta wannabes
who are still gurgling their mamas' warm milk
while grabbily sniffing wet cannabis.
H can swiftly take you halfway to heaven,
and let you drop down to Mambu Tavern
I went to school, learned ABC's when it's day
but at night, forgot all my teachers said;
save graffiti, they mean zilch anyway.
J is the bata who just came out of jail,
now he wants cats, cold cash and a cocktail.
K do you remember that chubby kongkong
who works for Eddy at the tucker-shop?
he chewed betel nut and became a bong.
L still pissed at those lover-boys and kekus
that we smashed after bouts of lokim brus.
M is for all those good bataistic music
that naturally flows when batas click;
and that laudable maid in meri-blouse
who, accept for church, rarely leaves the house.
N remember those rare dust-free, cop-free nights
when we make big circles beside the road
passing joints, playing cards under streetlights?
O they've all gone now! we don't want them somehow
and put them out with stones lest snitchers crow.
P is the paps with a lot of beer and cash,
and an equally money-clad young wife,
at whose house we can party wild and crash.
Q and there are those qwarphy queans in our streets
who can shake rumbas when we play our beats.
R respect, hats off to the resa-mamas
who, with winks and wiggles, can make faithful
papas forget vows, wives and tumbunas.
S pause for batas who now sleep in silence.
the nangunan's shots gave them little chance.
T give it up to the times when they were here
when they made the calls, called the shots, led up
front. with them around, we hardly knew fear.
U just put on a cut-jean and a round-neck
shirt, and KT — we're bringing fashion back!
V is the vavi on whom we waste whistles
who, nonetheless, commends our cheap efforts
with cute, wry smiles and nonchalant giggles.
W you wake up from hangovers on Wen'sday
beaming, for just down the bend is Friday.
X when we talk of PNG politics,
and vowed not to give anyone an "X"
for we think we know all their stupid tricks.
Y is for me and you (others like us too)
awrie batastrets and the faithful few.
Z enough said, let's stroll over to Zoo Bar,
and drink this tribute with SP Lager.
besides, what good's a paper filled with dots?
we're broken pencils. let booze chill our thoughts.
Glossary
awrie awesome and original (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
baket homebrew (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
bata friend, esp., brotherhood form in the streets (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
bataistic of or relating to bata
batastrets genuine, best batas forever (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
bong stupid (Kuanua)
futsu girlfriend, esp., one who is very beautiful (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
keku a sissy (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
kongkong an Asian (PNG Pidgin)
lokim brus puffing tobacco (PNG Pidgin)
mungaii a very handsome bata (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
nangunan an auxiliary policeman (Kuanua/PNG Pidgin/Slang)
paps papa (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
qwarphy beautiful and bodacious
resa-mama sugar mummy (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
slock slow and sluggish (PNG Pidgin/Slang)
vavi woman or madam (Kuanua)
wakuku a not-so-attractive futsu (Kuanua/PNG Pidgin/Slang)
Thank you Wardley for capturing the ABCs of life from the other side of the Bismarck Sea. Bring back old memories.
Posted by: Raymond Sigimet | 10 June 2016 at 05:17 PM