Mama Tang (Mother Tongue)
03 June 2021
Mama tang
The hook
Long hangamapim
Your items of bilas
Is not missed
Until it's not there
At the pool showers
Na your bilas
Emi silip long floa
And gets trod on
By other swimmers
Disregarded, made to look
Olsem pipia. Ragged.
Go ahead
Have your swim
When you're done
Bai yu painim
Narapela trasis
Long karamapim ass
Bilong yu na sem
Olsem na
In what language
Will you excuse yourself
And the sem pipia
Taim kastam emi lus
Em ia.
"Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world’s most linguistically diverse nation"
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/22/e2100096118?fbclid=IwAR3WTht2u7jAV3s2ld9MrCC7YKUr-iJH1s010KQ2unI6eATVY37mLa75A9U
Posted by: Michael Dom | 03 June 2021 at 07:05 AM